I could not recommend Birth You Desire / Ursula / Jenn more. Jenn has been simply the best doula we…read morecould have asked for. During birth, she was able to tell when my husband needed some extra help, asked the hospital staff for what he needed on his behalf when he was not mentally able to, and gave us guidance based off of my preferences and state of mind that led to an incredibly successful birth. Her postpartum care has honestly been the highlight of her services. I did not realize how much help we would need overnight and the help and resources that Jenn provides have been invaluable. Jenn claims she is not magic - but she is. You are in the best hands with Birth You Desire.

Jenn Carlson is an amazing person and doula who went above and beyond for us during our birth and…read morepostpartum journey. Our baby was born during one of the worst snowstorms in years and she made sure she was prepared and there to support us (even if it meant getting snowed in at the hospital). Without her care and experience we would've had a very different birth that likely would've ended in an emergency c-section. I had a lot of anxiety about giving birth but Jenn helped put me at ease and explained things very well. She is warm and has an evidence based approach to her work. She also looked out for my partner which I really appreciated, ensuring he ate and rested. Afterwards we also used Jenn's overnight doula services to care for our infant and she was just as fantastic with him. Not only did we get a good night's rest when she was here (priceless), we also felt so supported with learning about newborn care and dealing with all of the emotional aspects of becoming parents. Our journey would've been different without her and we will forever be grateful that we had her support.

The womb room is amazing!! They offer so many classes for before baby or after. I took advantage of…read morethe free virtual prenatal yoga classes, pregnancy support group and baby and me yoga. Yoga is so fun to connect with my baby and also other moms. Plus Amanda is a great instructor! Some of their other classes are on the pricey side is the only thing but it's such a great resource for moms! Also their location can be a bit tricky to find but the main door is off Keswick Rd (and is stroller friendly). Walk in past the dress shop and bare to the right. There's a big parking lot in the back.

This review is is for the doula services and support groups (becoming a mom and breastfeeding)…read more I like that the becoming a mom group has a rotation of doulas who lead the group each week. That way you end up inadvertently meeting the different doulas. We went with Cara. She has a ton of experience and super chill vibe. Our hospital was not allowing extra visitors due to COVID so we signed up for a virtual doula service. She met with us a few times before the birth to review questions, birth plan, and provide support. She was also available via email for random questions that came up in between. The day of my labor I reached out to her as needed and she guided me through some of the decisions we had to make. Her support made it so that I could better advocate for myself and my baby during my labor. She was 100% supportive of all my decisions and in the end I ended up having a beautiful and quick birth. I am so happy we got a doula and recommend it to anyone no matter what type of brith you are planning on having. I found the groups to be more helpful towards the beginning of my pregnancy, especially as it was a time that COVID was just ramping up. The only issue is that the people in group vary from week to week. I think it would be nice to be able to connect with the same group from week to week so there is some continuity.

Instructors: 11/10. Wonderful, knowledgeable, and open to questions. You guys rock!…read moreOn the other hand... this class was held at an empty medical office which wasn't the greatest setup for the PowerPoint presentation. We basically sat in the dark for about three hours - totally not the instructor's fault but it was depressing. Great content but the logistics could use some improvement for this price.

My husband and I took the Baby Bootcamp class in mid-December. The class was conducted via Zoom and…read morewas well-run, informative and interactive. While we would have loved to have taken it in-person in different circumstances, we appreciated having a safe and virtual option in these strange times. Shoutout to Lillian for the Childbirth portion of the class, who was phenomenal. I hope she's working when we go into labor! I did have a little trouble signing up for the class online, as the registration seemed to be down but I emailed them and Taylor, the Stork intern, got back to me right away and helped us get signed up! I would highly recommend the class to anyone looking to get a comprehensive and interesting childbirth/parenting class.

I'm surprised to see a low rating for MoCo Counseling Center. They came highly recommended by a…read moreprofessional that I trust and although I didn't sign up for their services, it was only because the owner, Laura Goldstein, took the time to do a thorough assessment of my family's needs and made recommendations that were outside of her practice, while offering to assist if our needs changed at a later time. That's ethical, clearly putting patient before profit. She had space in the program for my child but it wasn't the right time for a good fit. I received valuable information in our conversation and encouragement as a parent. I couldn't ask for more.

Despite receiving multiple bad reviews, MCC has chosen complain to Yelp about the posted reviews…read moreand encourage Yelp to remove reviews rather than to actually improve their service. And what's worse is that the excuse they gave Yelp is that there weren't enough details of my personal experience with the practice in order to ensure that it came from an actual customer. In other words, MCC wants me to break HIPAA rules for them, post our personal experience, so they can then respond that they won't break HIPAA rules but take our feedback seriously. The problem with this practice starts with its owner, who is is concentrated on diversifying income via speaking tours, online pre-recorded courses, and selling you every type of therapy add-on imaginable. All the while maintaining minimal oversight and communication with the largely unexperienced staff. In the meantime, your family suffers. I've been in the healthcare field for over 20 years and was shocked at the lack of bedside manner we experienced. It's one thing to be nickel-and-dimed at every turn, another to deal with that approach in the setting of mental health. Our specific situation was that we had a child who had been recommended to receive DBT therapy and DBT group. It turns out that this therapy center doesn't follow standard DBT group teaching recommendations - which are that the children shouldn't be making friends and interacting excessively in DBT group, since they often amplify each other's misfortunes. At MCC, my child was left to exchange numbers with other clients and build relationships during the large amount of downtime during DBT group. This isn't surprising, since the staff are so inexperienced and may not have even been through DBT training. We had to actually bring up the issue, and later got a phone call that they were only just then (1.5 months into the group sessions) learning about how to encourage healthy boundaries and DBT style rules into their established DBT group class. Then anytime our very young and inexperienced therapist heard anything that sounded at all like negative self-talk from our child, we we would get an urgent call of concern. This happened, despite our having been multiple times by us that that sort of behavior had been going on for a few years and usually just indicated that our child wanted validation and to be heard. It even reached a point where the owner of the practice, who had never met our child or us, called one afternoon to say that if we didn't take our child to the crisis center immediately the owner would call the police and have them come to our house. We obviously didn't go back to MCC after that. And just to emphasize how outside of the standard of care MCC is, our child subsequently attended a different DBT course in Howard County, and then underwent intensive DBT therapy and class, and we were never called with naive urgency, never told that the police would be called on us, and our child's mental health stabilized and she's been doing great at school. So thankfully, our traumatic experience at MCC didn't have a huge impact.

I learned new skills and approaches to parenting my son that had a positive impact on my parenting…read moreand on our relationship and communication improved.

I was really sad to see the negative review from 2012 as that is not at all my experience with PEP…read more I see she's based in Baltimore and PEP is based in Kensington, so I have to wonder if she's actually attended PEP programming vs a free intro or talk at a PTA kind of thing. And, it would be hard to implement one or two PEP ideas if there are bigger relationship issues at hand. You'd need the core courses at PEP to tackle those challenges, definitely not a talk here and there. My experience over the course of the last 10 years taking classes with PEP has been excellent. The philosophies and tools that I learned there have been invaluable in raising my now 19, 16 and 12 year old boys. My 16 year old actually told me this year that he was glad we were his parents. When I asked why he said he's hearing the craziness his friends are dealing with and he's so grateful he doesn't have the same issues...and I thought, thank you PEP! The organization has expanded to online programming and recently won awards for the Master Classes. I took both Master Classes and enjoyed them. That said, I love the in person interaction and comradery of the in-person classes, especially the multi-week ones where the group can practice new skills and come back together to share their mis-steps and their successes. PEP makes parenting make sense and gives highly effective tools to understand our kids behavior and to parent with love and respect. Highly recommend!

Better Together Family Therapy is the go to place for all of your mental health therapy needs…read more Robin is knowledgeable and has hired an amazing team of therapists that can provide individual or family therapy. Robin is great at helping determine what time of therapy is most needed and then matching the client with the right therapist. I highly recommend Better Together Family Therapy.

Better Together Family Therapy is my go to for compassionate creative and comprehensive mental…read morehealth care for children and their families. When my own practice is full or a family needs services that I can't provide, Better Together is my first stop!

Mama's Circle is a wonderfully supportive judgment-free space that Elizabeth does an excellent job…read moremoderating. She is a wonderful group leader. Each week she helps new moms probe the questions and concerns they have by facilitating group discussion. In doing so, she adds lots of her own useful knowledge as well as gathering thoughts from the group, striking the perfect balance between a wise mentor and friend.

One of the best decisions I made as a new Mom was join Elizabeth's Mama's Circle! It's a great…read moreopportunity to connect with other mamas, share in this journey, and speak your mind in a warm + welcoming, supportive space. As a mom herself, Elizabeth leads each class with experience and an attitude towards being a parent (and life in general) that is refreshingly honest. Having also taken her prenatal and postnatal yoga classes, I can't say enough good things about her. Thank you, Elizabeth, for creating this awesome "village" of mamas!

We took the childbirth education and cpr classes…read more I'd recommend them. One class was held at Nidhi's residence (separate from her home) and another was at an office location in Arlington. The instructors were great. Nidhi is very knowledgeable, friendly, and open. The class sizes were pretty small and you're encouraged to ask lots of questions. There were also snacks and water which are important to me since i was pregnant and didn't want to go 2+ hours not eating/drinking anything. My husband and I brought sandwiches to one class and we were able to eat them during the class (it was around dinner time/6pm) so atmosphere is casual which I appreciate. You get an online resource packet after the class that summarizes everything covered. Should probably look at that again as i am typing this before my gassy, ornery newborn wakes up.

As a first time aunt with no previous experience with infants, I was seeking resources to help me…read morelearn the basics. it was surprisingly difficult to find information that wasn't just about pregnancy and delivery, when I was really looking for things like feeding holding, changing and what to expect in the first few months. Nested's Newborn Care/ Infant CPR Bootcamp absolitely knocked it out of the park. I learned SO MUCH about the stages baby's are going through when they're first born, the routines you're establishing, the techniques you can use to care for them and more. Renie and Migma are so nice, and so clearly so committed to what they do, I felt extremely comfortable and confident under their instruction. The class imparts so much information in a 4-hour course, and the cherry on top is that after completing the in-person and online class imparts now Red Cross certified for both Adult and Infant CPR, and feel confident in both. Even Though I myself am not expecting, I was welcomed and encouraged in my desire to learn. Whether you're an expecting parent or a loved one seeking to prepare to be an involved member of a child's early life, i really can't recommend Nested and specifically the Newborn Care bootcamp highly enough! Absolutely worth the value!

We wish we had hired Caryn sooner!!!…read more We went from an exclusively contact/motion napping and co-sleeping baby to having a baby who genuinely LOVES her crib, and that is not an exaggeration. She no longer sleeps a full cycle in her stroller or car anymore. She only wants her crib now! When we were first searching for a sleep consultant, the biggest selling point for us was that Caryn provides continuous support the entire time, not just the first night like many others. And she absolutely exceeded that expectation. She was so supportive and responsive the entire time. She even stayed up past her normal texting hours to help us and would actually respond almost immediately to all my texts every day. Our quality of life has dramatically changed because of Caryn. We're better parents and partners because we're finally getting sleep. Don't hesitate! Caryn is truly AMAZING!!!

Working with Caryn at Sleep Tight Tonight was one of the best things we ever did! Our daughter was…read moredependent on us rocking her to sleep, and at 22 months it was taking longer and longer up get her to sleep each night. My husband and I felt like we barely saw each other. We have a second child on the way in October and we knew something needed to change. In just 4 nights using our new sleep plan our to girl learned how to put herself to sleep independently!!! Best thing we ever did!

Not only is this a huge retail store, but it's also a membership wood-maker club. It's been around…read morefor over a decade and I am only just now discovering it. I came for their Oktoberfest, which had many vendors selling unique woodwork items. I actually needed quality wood glue to repair a wooden dresser I inherited that was my 90 year old mom's childhood dresser in England. I think wood glue should work, and this place had several to choose from. I bought the smallest size as I don't need much. The workers are helpful and friendly. I didn't see if there were rooms in back for people to work or take classes, but judging by the name of this place, I assume so. They also had the cutest resident pug chilling out in the middle of the store. I was going to take a picture, but he moved on.

My son started taking a woodworking class for youth here recently. They were super flexible and…read moreaccommodating and even managed to give him a 1:1 class to "catch him up with the group" even though we only paid for a group class. More importantly, watching the instructor work with my 9 year old son, I was truly impressed at the level of instruction and what he was able to help my son construct with wood. It was terrific, and I would recommend it anyone.