About Kimberly
Kimberly Downing helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and low self-esteem. She brings a calm, steady presence and encourages honest talk about what’s worrying someone now. Kimberly Downing holds an MD and an LCPC, and she has two decades of professional experience in counseling.
Her style is warm and direct. Sessions focus on clear goals and practical steps that people can try between meetings. She encourages mindfulness and teaches tools to notice unhelpful thoughts, regulate emotions, and improve day-to-day coping.
Background and approach
Kimberly uses a mix of approaches to match what each person needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at how thinking patterns affect mood and behavior. Client-Centered Therapy centers the conversation on the person’s priorities and choices.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy adds skills for handling strong emotions and relationships. She has worked with concerns that include abandonment, attachment issues, body image, caregiving stress, chronic illness, and adjustment after loss. That background helps when problems are linked together, such as grief alongside anxiety or chronic pain alongside depression.
Sessions are practical and paced to what feels comfortable. People leave with concrete coping strategies they can use right away. The aim is steady progress toward clearer thinking, better emotional balance, and improved daily functioning.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on the person's priorities and values. The therapist follows the client's lead and helps them explore choices and feelings without judgment. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify patterns of thinking that fuel anxiety or low mood and replaces those patterns with more helpful habits. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches concrete skills for managing intense emotions, staying steady in relationships, and tolerating distress.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist discusses goals and preferences and then collaborates to shape sessions. That way techniques are matched to what a person wants to change and how they prefer to learn new skills.
Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make scheduling easier. Video lets people work face-to-face when they want it. Phone sessions can fit into a break at work or require less bandwidth. Live chat and messaging are useful for short check-ins, day-to-day coaching, or when someone prefers written reflection. These options aim to make therapy flexible and easier to fit into a busy life.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she focus on?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages and international clients are supported?
What session formats are available?
How does cost work?
How do I begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Maryland
- Languages
- English