Our Approach

We incorporate four pillars of contemporary psychotherapy into our work with a diverse range of women and men:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and parts work as a foundation for supporting and not pathologizing multiplicity

• Polyvagal Theory and the importance of the autonomic nervous system in healing trauma and creating lasting change

• Attachment Theory and the value of safe and secure relationships to foster both inner and outer connections and security

• Mindfulness of the body and of our thoughts to support daily well-being and develop skills & tools for lasting growth and change

We use the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of therapy to help our clients build healthy and thriving lives—in their mind, body, spirit, and relationships.

Our Mission & Vision

We help people thrive in their daily life and relationships by providing high-quality, thoughtful therapy grounded in the importance of relationships and mind-body integration for individuals and couples. We also provide support, consultation, and resources for our therapists so that both they and their clients experience the 8 C’s of Self-leadership: calmness, curiosity, clarity, compassion, confidence, creativity, courage, and connectedness.

Our Mission Statement: Four Corners Counseling & Well-Being is a welcoming and trustworthy source of competent psychotherapy, counseling, and consulting services designed to nurture the whole person.

Our Vision Statement: We are a premier source of holistic well-being in mind, body, spirit, and relationships to individuals, couples, and groups in the Greater Washington, DC area and nationally via the internet, and we support the well-being of our FCCW team.

Our Guiding Principles

MIND: We believe that our mind is good, even when thoughts take over. 

BODY: We believe that our body carries so much wisdom once we learn to pay attention.

SPIRIT: We believe in the role of spirituality and faith practices in the healing process. We follow our clients’ lead and do not impose any particular belief system. We recognize and welcome a wide variety of ways to connect with something greater than ourselves.

RELATIONSHIPS: We believe in well-being through relationships. First with yourself, and then with your most important others. We honor diversity in our clients and ourselves. We are an LGBTQ-affirming community.

Our Start

Hetty Barnett had the dream of a mental health group practice to treat the whole person while in graduate school at the University of Chicago. In 2012, “Four Corners Counseling” came into being with a grounding sense of place (our main office is in the Four Corners neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland) and a clear vision to offer high-quality therapy services that help people thrive in all areas of their life. In 2015, Hetty entered Four Corners Counseling, LLC in the StartRight! Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Maryland Women’s Business Center. Four Corners Counseling, LLC won the Grand Prize! As the practice grew, we added “& Well-Being” to express the mission of integrated wellness for our clients. Our tagline says it, too: “Mind, Body, Spirit, and Relationships: The Four Corners of a Thriving life.” 

Our logo is a geometric flower with four petals meeting a diamond in the center, overlaid on a unifying circle. Both the petals and the diamond represent the “four corners” of mind, body, spirit, and relationships while the circle symbolizes the integration of a thriving life. Hetty sketched the logo and later realized she had drawn a replica of a ring she had worn for over twenty years, a gift from her mother when she turned twenty-one. The logo was updated in 2021 with the skillful design help of Hetty’s sister and daughter. 

Now, Four Corners Counseling and Well-Being is both home-grown and grown-up, offering competent and compassionate services to women, men and couples by talented and experienced therapists who are attracted to the mission and vision of this unique mental health practice. 

Our Four Corners Culture

Four Corners Counseling & Well-Being is an organization that, at its heart, is about the whole person for both our clients and our clinicians. We are grounded in the transformative therapy model of Internal Family Systems, and the clinicians who choose to work here appreciate the professional community that is fostered through shared learning & practice of our craft of therapy. We believe that the best therapists continuously learn about themselves as people and as clinicians through their own professional development and personal growth. Just as we want our clients to grow and experience the 8 C’s of Self-leadership, we also want that for one another. We make it a point to provide opportunities for that growth to happen through regular consultation groups, community time, opportunities for creativity, annual retreats, and the freedom for clinicians to control their own flexible schedule that supports a work/life balance. We honor and welcome diversity on our clinical team and among our professional colleagues.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Eliot, pen-name for Mary Ann Evans, 19th century novelist