Shemica Cole, LICSW

Shemica Cole is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) based in the District of Columbia. She brings 24 years of experience helping people navigate anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, parenting challenges, and more.

She listens first and then works with each person to build a practical plan. That plan often uses cognitive behavioral therapy, attachment-focused ideas, mindfulness, and skills from client-centered and dialectical approaches. Sessions focus on clear, usable tools rather than jargon.

She has worked with adults who have histories of trauma and abuse and with people facing life transitions like caregiving, loss, or job stress. She also helps those dealing with addictions, grief, intimacy concerns, sleep problems, and challenges tied to identity and LGBT issues.

In conversation she aims to be warm and direct, bringing humor and hope when it helps. She emphasizes learning skills that people can use between sessions to manage intense emotions and make steady changes.

People who choose to work with her start by identifying specific goals. From there she helps set small steps and practical strategies toward those goals. Shemica encourages steady progress and supports people as they try new ways of coping and relating.

Approaches that translate well to online care

Many of her sessions draw on cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and practicing different behaviors to reduce anxiety and depression. CBT offers concrete exercises and short homework tasks that fit well into video or text conversations.

Attachment-based work looks at patterns in close relationships and helps people notice how early bonds affect present behavior. This approach can help with intimacy issues, abandonment concerns, blended family dynamics, and communication problems by naming relationship patterns and trying new ways of connecting.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Shemica will collaborate with each person to decide which methods match their goals and preferences. Together they set clear goals and try strategies, then adjust the plan based on what helps most.

Online formats make regular contact easier. Video calls support face-to-face discussion and skill practice, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed, and live chat or text messaging can provide brief check-ins, coaching, or reminders between sessions. These options offer flexibility for busy schedules and different comfort levels with being on camera.