Elisabeth Joy LaMotte,
LICSW, MSW, is the founder of the Center. She is a licensed independent clinical social worker and an individual, couples, family and group psychotherapist. She has been in private practice since 2000, and has over 20 years of experience in the social work field. Her approach to therapy is focused and goal-oriented, and her personality is kind, empathetic and direct. Elisabeth is honored to serve as a member of the Board of Overseers of her graduate school,
The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and the
Trustees' Council of Penn Women. She is a member of the
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), the
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the
American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). She has met rigorous training, clinical and education standards to become designated as an AAMFT approved supervisor. She currently supervises AAMFT candidates for clinical membership. She is a frequent
blogger for the Huffington Post and
YourTango and she reviews books for
The Readers Exchange. Her book,
Overcoming Your Parents' Divorce: Five Steps to a Happy Relationship, a self-help book for adults with divorced parents, was a finalist in the 2008
National Best Book Awards in the relationship category. Out of over 15,000 applicants, Elisabeth was one of fewer than 50 finalists in Good Morning America’s 2010 Guru Search. In 1995, Elisabeth received a Master's Degree in Social Work (MSW) from the
University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, now named the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (SP-2). She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1997, she received a post-graduate certificate in couples, family and sex therapy from the
Penn Council for Relationships, an affiliate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She is a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) in Washington DC. Her work has been published in the
Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapy, and she has written op-ed columns for The Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Tribune. She has taught graduate level courses at the
Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate School of Social Work. She was recently interviewed by Washingtonian for an
article about couples and exercise. She was named one of the 11 Best Relationship Therapists of 2014, by
DatingAdvice.com. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and two children. She is active in her community, and served for ten years as a member of the Advisory Board of
THEARC. She was a member of the Board of Directors of
Little Folks School from Spring of 2005- Spring 2013 and was co-chair of the
Washington Ballet's 2010 Nutcracker Tea, and as Family Chair of the
2011 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk to Cure Diabetes.