About Dr. Lucas

About Dr. Lucas

Psychotherapy is most effective when you feel an authentic connection with your therapist.

Sometimes, knowing about your therapist's training and experience helps you with beginning that connection, so here's some information that might be helpful. Of course, if you have additional questions, please feel free to ask.


Psychotherapy is most effective when you feel an authentic connection with your therapist.

Sometimes, knowing about your therapist's training and experience helps you with beginning that connection, so I'm offering here some information that might be helpful. Of course, if you have additional questions, please feel free to ask.


I have a passionate commitment to helping people create fuller, more abundant and mindful lives.

I love what I do, and I bring my diverse and well-grounded personal, educational and clinical experiences as a psychologist to my psychotherapy practice.

My training, credentials, and expertise, together with authenticity, directness, and empathy, help people get the traction they need to create real change.

Over twenty-five years as a psychologist, and I still find psychotherapy to be an invigorating and compelling experience with my patients. I really love what I do!

I'm straightforward, compassionate, and authentic in therapy.

Together with my training and experience, these support and energize the work my patients and I do together.

I feel strongly that increasing well-being is far more effective than "decreasing" pathology.

I focus on helping people create and experience changes in their lives, like:

  • emotional growth and evolution
  • better relationships with yourself and with others
  • healthy and useful self-understanding
  • greater resilience
  • improved physical health through psychological wellness
  • greater life satisfaction

In addition to my extensive background in clinical psychology, I'm a neuropsychologist.

I respect and am fascinated by the connections between physical and emotional well-being, and I stay up to date on the research and clinical use of understanding those connections. Before entering private practice, I was an assistant professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, working with patients who had sustained traumatic brain injuries, strokes, and other physical and psychological challenges. From that, I developed a special interest in interpersonal neurobiology, which I bring into the psychotherapy work I do. For example, there's an effective integrative approach between neuropsychology and the practice of mindfulness, with strong, evidence-based research showing real, measurable changes in the brain that support well-being and improved relationships.

Some of the current researchers and writers whose work I find helpful in my work as a psychotherapist include (and these are only a few):

  • Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD
  • Richard Davidson, PhD
  • Daniel Siegel, MD
  • Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, PhD
  • Ronald Siegel, PsyD
  • Sara Lazar, PhD
  • Jack Kornfield, PhD
  • Tara Brach, PhD
  • Belleruth Naparstek, LISW
  • Mary Ainsworth, PhD
 

Educational Background:

  • PhD, Clinical Psychology – Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
  • Internship, Clinical Psychology – U.N.C. Medical School at Chapel Hill
  • MA, Psychology – State University of New York at Binghamton
  • BA, Psychology (with Distinction) – University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Professional Memberships:

  • American Psychological Association
  • Society for Neuroscience
  • American Academy of Psychotherapists
  • International Neuropsychological Society
  • National Academy of Neuropsychology
  • Credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists

In addition to my psychotherapy practice, I've written a best-selling book, Rewire Your Brain for Love, about changing the brain, mindfulness, and creating healthier relationships.

As an advocate of psychological and physical well-being, I'm also regularly interviewed and quoted in the media, in addition to teaching and speaking nationally.

Contact Me
Marsha Lucas, PhD – Psychologist

1350 Connecticut Ave NW, at Dupont Circle Washington DC 20036

(202) 331-3318

Licensed in Washington DC and Maryland

I am also approved to provide Telepsychology in all U.S. states that are part of PSYPACT. Currently, that includes the following states:

Alabama • Arizona • Arkansas • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • District of Columbia • Florida • Georgia • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Kansas • Kentucky • Maine • Maryland • Michigan • Minnesota • Missouri • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming