Therapists & Counselors in District of Columbia

Psychologists, clinical social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists and psychiatrists registered with a practice address in this area.

6,912

Registered providers

Places with providers

45th

National rank

of 56

Licence types

District of Columbia has 6,912 licensed providers with a registered practice address, across 13 licence types.

District of Columbia ranks 45th of 56 states and territories by the number of registered providers in this field.

By licence type the breakdown is clinical social worker (1,951), mental health counselor (823), social worker (764), professional counselor (625), with 9 further types making up the remainder.

No single licence type dominates here — clinical social worker and mental health counselor are within reach of each other. For most common reasons to seek therapy, the distinction between those licences matters less than availability and cost.

Providers are registered in 20 distinct places across District of Columbia. The map shows the ZIP codes with the highest counts.

One caveat on reading these numbers: the registry records where a provider registered an address, not where they see clients day to day, and addresses are not always kept current. It also says nothing about whether someone is taking new clients.

How District of Columbia got here

new registrations per year

Each registration carries the year it was issued, so the registry doubles as a record of when this workforce grew in District of Columbia. A rising line means the constraint is easing; a flat one means today's shortage is likely to be next year's too.

New registrations per year. licensed providers in District of Columbia. Annual registrations in 2025 were 37% higher than in 2008. The final bar is faded because 2026 is still in progress. Starts at 2008 on purpose. The NPI system launched in 2006– 2007 and the whole profession registered at once, so those two years are an artefact of the rollout rather than a measure of anything. Including them would make the following year look like a collapse.

Who they are

self-reported to CMS

74.9% of registered licensed providers in District of Columbia are women. Nationally the figure varies a great deal by licence type — occupational therapy at one end, psychiatry at the other. See the national breakdown.

You can filter any city list on this site by gender. We show it because it is one of the most common things people search for and, for some kinds of work, a real need — but it is only ever a filter here, never a ranking.