"All healing is first a healing of the heart." - Carl Townsend
Barb Elgin...- Was born and educated in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, Magna Cum Laude and was voted by psychology department faculty as "Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student" given her academic and leadership activities (President of Psi Chi/Psychology Club).
- Earned her Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland, Downtown Campus, with a specialization in community organizing and social administration with a concentration in employee assistance programs, studying under nationally renowned EAP experts Dr.'s Dale Masi and Muriel Gray. She interned for a national EAP and a continuing care retirement community in Baltimore County, Maryland.
- Has been an independently practicing LCSW-C in Maryland since 1994 and spent almost a decade doing the same as an LCSW in Florida. She received post-grad supervision from private practitioner Kay Spence, LCSW-C and John Verleger, LCSW of the Family Counseling Center of Baltimore.
- Studied life, business and relationship coaching, attending The Relationship Coaching Institute with David Steele, LMFT, MCC, and Thomas Leonard at Coachville as well as private training with master coaches Dr. Ben Dean, MCC (The Mentor Coach) and Marion Franklin, MS, BCC, MCC of The Life Coaching Group.
- Completed training with Lisa Clampitt, MSW at the Matchmaking Institute in New York, New York. She's received business coaching from successful entrepreneurs and business professionals such as Max Simon (a protege of Deepak Chopra), Sabine Messner, Jeffrey Van Dyk, Susan Bradley, Alex Mandossian, Ted McGrath and Travis Greenlee.
- Has over 25 years of post graduate professional experience in a wide variety of settings including outpatient private practice, managed care, clinical and administration of EAP's, management and business ownership. She directed an innovative, one of the first of it's kind intensive outpatient treatment programs in the premiere 55 plus active adult community in the Villages, Florida. Part of her responsibilities included teaching grief workshops at the Villages Lifelong Learning Center (now Enrichment Academy). Her EAP experience includes critical incident debriefings and management consultation, such as providing crisis and grief counseling following terrorist attacks, bank robberies, company layoffs and workplace tragedies.
- Incorporated her rescue miniature pinscher Lucy into her work with senior clients in Florida, in outpatient therapy, nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
- Created and ran her own matchmaking and relationship coaching practice, along with wrapping almost 100 episodes of her popular podcast 'Lesbian Love Talk'.
- Has worked in the public and private sectors, for organizations large and small. She likes to say that one of the reasons she loves her career so much is that she has been honored to work with people from all walks of life and work, from janitors to CEOs, from the homeless to those with many homes, to professional and amateur athletes and celebrities thrown in too. And everyone else - the lion's share of her clients by the way - in between! Her adventures at one point even included traveling around the United States, giving talks and running speed dating events on cruise ships.
- Continues to develop her wide range of helping skills with hundreds of hours of post graduate continuing education. She has studied communication and couples therapy skills extensively, as well as stress management and mindfulness and current areas of interest and practice development includes sports psychology and use of tech applications to improve mental health services. For many years of her private practice, she focused on counseling couples, gay and straight.
Currently Barb's individual, group and retreats coaching and counseling practice focuses on...- Women Health Care Professionals and Healers 50 and beyond who are creating healthier, happier life/work balance, through self employment and political advocacy.
- Adult athletes who want to improve their mental game.
- LGBTQ's who are dealing with the anxiety and stresses of living in an America that is still full of plenty of bosses, family members and institutions that actively discriminate against them.
- Baby Boomers 50 and up seeking more flexible work schedules and earning more income doing so.
- Adults aging well while dealing with the impact of chronic pain and chronic illnesses.
- Millennials, Gen X, Y and Z'ers who are seeking wisdom and mentoring by those who've been there.
- Professionals who've chosen work they love, that is so well matched to them, that their challenge is balancing rest with their engagement in their creativity.
- Free thinking agnostics who are finding their way spiritually. Who are entranced by the mysteries of the universe. Who find they don't 'fit' into any category of organized religion, new ageism or atheism. Who are open to discovering other ways. They ARE out there!
- All voters who want to build bridges versus attack each other. To build consensus versus all republicans or democrats are bad. Or that independents are irrelevant.
For more details on Barb's work
go here.
Barb is also an athlete and a (sadly, retired) musician (due to lack of time and practice!). Barb has had a long history of character and courage building experiences such as coming out gay in the 1970's, spending many years after that coming to fully love and accept herself (regardless of whether others do or did or not) and putting herself through college and grad school. She's spent much of her adulthood supporting herself, not always easy given the challenges female business owners in the healing arts often face.
Barb has a long history of volunteer work in the Maryland and Florida communities including chamber of commerce board member, political activism for worker's rights, healthcare and LGBTQ issues, dog rescue and pickleball. For example, a few years ago upon returning to the Baltimore area, she founded Charm City Pickleball, which now includes over 300 members. She's also very active in her family, spending time with her parents, sisters and nieces.
Barb is a successful business owner and is licensed for independent clinical practice in Maryland. She has an active practice in central Maryland, including an office in Towson and a full time
video coaching and therapy practice for adults 18 and up. She also offers life and career coaching and consulting services, including webinars, individual video sessions and in person workshops and retreats.
"To succeed in life you need a wish bone, a back bone and a funny bone". - Reba McIntire, Country Music Star 
