About Me

I am a clinical social worker/ psychotherapist with over 40 years of experience. I am also a certified group psychotherapist, teach couple’s therapy on the post-graduate level and serve as a consultant/supervisor to therapists in the community and in private practice. Additionally, I maintain an organizational consulting practice, Tybe Diamond & Associates, which is focused on organizational development, transitions, partner & group dynamics, employee coaching, team building and executive leadership. I am on the faculty of two post-graduate clinical training institutions, The Washington School of Psychiatry and the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. I also chair a post-graduate training program in “Psychotherapy with Aging Adults and the Study of Aging,” which is part of the Washington School of Psychiatry’s Center for the Study of Aging where I serve as director.

I completed my professional training at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work in 1971 and began my clinical career working first with children, adolescents, parents and later adults. I have worked in community and private outpatient mental health clinics, state and private psychiatric hospitals, including Harvard’s private psychiatric teaching hospital, McLean Hospital, consulted to the psychiatry staff of Georgetown University Hospital , worked as a school social worker in special education for children with emotional disturbance and physical handicaps, served as a consultant to a private pre-school and I have also served as a consultant to family businesses, non-profit organizations, trade associations and a significant department within the federal government. I learned a great deal about suffering, families, parenting, creativity, resilience and organizational dynamics from all of these experiences which have served me well in my private psychotherapy practice which I began in 1976 part time and full time in 1981.

I am deeply committed to my clients, to their integrity and my own. Successful therapy depends on two people co-creating a relationship for change. The unique, compassionate, safe and dedicated relationship that the therapist creates with a client who is seeking relief from suffering and desires change in their life is the foundation of successful therapy. At the heart of what I do as a therapist is trying to put myself in your shoes to understand your experience. This is the essence of a non-judgmental, empathic relationship but it does not mean we will always have the same opinion. Listening empathically I will create a space for you to feel and relate your distress, conflicted feelings and thoughts and to reflect on them more deeply together. I will guide you through the situation that may be overwhelming you and creating your suffering.

Where you might only see bad, weak, confused, conflicted, failure, selfish, angry, stupid, ugly, I most likely will see complexity , healthy instincts that have become tangled up with false ideas of what is correct and incorrect and faulty lessons about good and bad learned in very old and probably dysfunctional and non-affirming family relationships. I will be seeking to help you remove distortions of the past and present so that together we can clarify what your needs are and how you can effectively negotiate meeting your needs with more access to accurate perceptions of yourself, your issues, your relationships, your personal and professional situation, where you wish to go and how to get there.

In our work together I will draw on the richness of my life experience, education, and training to help you understand your present situation and how to change it in the direction you wish to go in. We’ll talk about how choices in the past may have been misguided and not representative of how you authentically feel. You may work on more than one aspect of your life simultaneously. You will decide which parts of your life to work on: love, work, career, health, family, friends, emotional, parenting and managing your relationships better. We’ll stay focused and together figure out what are the most effective strategies for you. Over time you will experience your depression lifting, your anxiety calming, disappointing relationships becoming less troublesome, your thinking clearing, your conflicts resolving, and your parenting working. Overall you will grow personally and probably professionally as well.

My orientation to the work is characterized by an interpersonal, relational approach. My clients experience me as welcoming, encouraging, interactive, open, insightful, empathic, enjoying humor and challenging at times. I will ask you to focus on your feelings and try to help you understand yourself more deeply and how you may be using worn out non-effective strategies. I will not let you take things for granted or avoid important issues. Often I might ask you to consider another way of viewing yourself & others and the choices you’ve made. Being able to entertain new ways of thinking about ourselves, our relationships, our work and our significant issues is very important since it increases one’s freedom to consider new ways of seeing ourselves and strategies we can use that can be more insightful, more honestly reflective of who we are and what decisions regarding our choices will take us in the best direction.

You can contact me at tybe@tybediamond.com or 202.966.1381 with your questions or to make an appointment for a consultation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Memberships, Certifications, & Faculty Positions

• Greater Washington Society of Clinical Social Workers
• National Association of Clinical Social Workers
  • NASW – Metro Chapter
• Clinical Social Work Association
• Washington School of Psychiatry; Faculty
  • WSP, Center for the Study of Aging, Director
  • WSP, Psychotherapy of Aging Adults and the Study of Aging, Chair
• Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; Faculty
  • ICP&P- Couples Training Program, Faculty
• American Group Psychotherapy Association
• Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Association
• Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work
• Certified Group Psychotherapist
• Licensed in WDC (Md. & Va.)
• LICSW - 020073