Advanced Training and
Professional Experience

Dante

My interest in being a therapist developed in a way that is probably not unusual for therapists. As I went through school, I become interested in understanding myself and my pain. I started out trying to find a way to make myself feel better, and that seemed to lead to this profession that involves helping other people deal more effectively with their feelings. I have been a therapist for over 20 years.

I received an M.A.in psychology from Temple University in 1970, and an M.S.W. in social work from the University of Maryland in 1995. Since 1995, I have been in private practice as a Clinical Social Worker, working with adults, first in Germantown, MD and now in Bethesda, MD.

Since receiving my clinical license, I have done twelve years of advanced training as a therapist. From 2004 to 2010, I was in psychoanalytic training at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (ICP&P), studying Self Psychology, and Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. I recently graduated as a certified contemporary psychoanalyst. Before that I spent six years studying British Object Relations at the Int'l Psychotherapy Institute (IPI).

As part of my training for my M.S.W., I did two clinical internships. The first was a one-year internship at N.I.H. in Bethesda, MD, working with adult cancer patients around issues of pain and loss associated with serious illness, learning to live after receiving a terminal diagnosis, death and dying. The second was a two-year internship at the Counseling Center at American University, Washington, DC, doing psychotherapy with undergraduate and graduate students.

Before becoming a social worker, I received an M.A. in psychology from Temple University, and worked eight years as a psychologist. I spent four year at a psychiatric hospital near Philadelphia, PA, doing inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy and psychological testing. In my final year I was Assistant Director of an inpatient psychosocial program. I then spent one year as a Crisis Intervention Counselor working with troubled teens and preteens to reduce teenage delinquency and drug abuse, and four years as Clinical Director of a Youth Bureau in Southern Maryland.

Professional Licenses and Memberships

  • Licensed Clinical Social Worker, State of Maryland, License # 09842
  • Approved Clinical Supervisor, Board of Social Work Examiners, State of Maryland
  • Certified Psychoanalyst, Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
  • Member, Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work
  • Member, International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology


    • If you'd like to learn more, call me at 301-652-5507 or email janet.dante@yahoo.com to schedule an appointment or ask questions.