Being a man can be stressful in your 20s and 30s
Demands of early career in a professional-oriented area like the DMV, exploring more serious romantic relationships, and solidifying your identity as an adult can get overwhelming, leading to anxiety and frustration for many young men.
In our therapy sessions, we’ll work together on managing and accepting difficult emotions, building your resilience, and making decisions that bring you more meaning and well-being during these two defining decades of your life.
Sound familiar to you?
Not feeling confident or at ease with yourself
Uncomfortable emotions and unwanted thoughts you don’t know what to do with
Being uncertain about the future of a relationship
Not knowing how to bring up sensitive issues to your partner because you’re worried it will cause more drama than resolution
Disliking your job, but not sure where exactly to go next or how to get there
Struggling to adjust to a major life change, like finding a job post-college, moving to a new city, losing a friend group, starting a family, or divorce.
Feeling like there’s not anyone you can go to for these concerns
My Services
Hey, I’m Ben Sollenberger, Resident in Counseling licensed in Virginia
In a field made up of mostly women and older male therapists, I understand finding someone relatable can be tough. In fact, fewer than 16% of therapists under 40 are men.
As a man in my thirties and on my second career, I’ve likely come up against similar challenges to what you’re experiencing. I bring both personal insight and years of clinical training to common mental health issues affecting men in their 20s and 30s. My mission is to support you through an equal measure of real-world understanding and research-based psychotherapy treatments. My style is to offer professional guidance that still feels conversational.
Frequently asked questions
-
Each session for each person can be different. What’s generally a given is we’ll be working as a team to explore and address your concerns, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors.
Over time we will pinpoint areas for positive change, come up with plans for you to make and maintain those changes.
-
Once a week at a regular day and time to start.
Why this cadence? I want to give you the very best care. You will be learning new ways of thinking. Like any other skill, repetition is key, especially at the start. Studies show that therapy is most effective if you see your therapist weekly.
Bi-weekly sessions are great for maintenance once you get momentum, but don’t offer the same benefits at the start and I don’t want to waste your time or money!
-
It depends! Research says most people experience most symptom relief after ~3-6 months of weekly sessions.
Some people might find what they need with 3-6 sessions, while others extend therapy for a couple more months or years for deeper self-exploration.
-
My 50-minute session rate is $225. My goal is two fold. One to keep my rate comparable and competitive to those out-of-network rates of other providers practicing within the D.C. metro area. Two is to see < 15 clients a week so I can devote more time to advanced trainings, research & reading, and personalizing each client’s care.
-
I specialize in anxiety therapy, depression treatment, career counseling and dating/relationship counseling for men in their 20s and 30s near Arlington Va, Washington DC, and Bethesda, Md.
My go-to framework is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), which is considered the gold standard in therapy. There is extensive research showing it’s effectiveness across a variety of psychological issues and populations.
The basic idea of CBT is that many psychological problems come from irrational and unhelpful beliefs we have about ourselves, others, and the world. By identifying and investigating these assumptions , we often develop more realistic and healthier worldviews.
In addition to my masters degree, I am training to complete my level Level 3 TEAM-CBT Certification with the Feeling Good Institute.
Other types of therapy I integrate into my sessions are ACT, Psychodynamic, Motivational Interviewing, Solutions-Focused, and Person-Centered Therapy.
-
Gender aside, what’s most important to successful therapy is finding someone who you feel comfortable with and gets you. Many men feel “understood without having to explain as much” when speaking to another man and believe a male therapist can better relate to their experiences around growing up, work, relationships, and fatherhood.