Zach Wittes

Warmth, Honesty & Skills You Can Actually Use

Zach brings a grounded, genuine style that balances emotional support with practical strategies for change. Therapy with him is collaborative and built on trust, where you can show up fully as yourself. Alongside that openness, he brings structure, accountability, and practical coping skills into sessions.

Zach has worked in individual therapy, group counseling, and anger management groups, and with adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system. Those settings shaped how he understands what it takes to balance relationships, identity, self-esteem, and day-to-day responsibilities. He sees teens (13+), young adults, and adults across Maryland navigating anxiety, depression, OCD, grief and loss, anger, self-esteem, and periods of transition and change. All sessions are secure teletherapy.

Clinical Focus

If you find yourself overwhelmed by overthinking, uncertainty about the future, low motivation, or the pressure of trying to keep everything together while struggling internally, Zach offers practical support built around your own goals. Anxiety is often the starting point, showing up as overthinking, uncertainty about what comes next, and the strain of holding everything together until that strain turns into burnout.

If you also live with OCD, Zach uses Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which works by facing what the obsession warns you about and sitting with the discomfort instead of doing the thing that usually makes it go away. Emotional regulation and anger come up often too, and he draws on the anger management groups he facilitated during his clinical training.

A significant part of Zach’s practice is with people in transitional stages of life. These are the periods when you may feel uncertain about who you are, what you want, or how to move forward. He especially enjoys helping clients strengthen emotional awareness, build confidence, and find a clearer sense of direction.

He also works with depression and low motivation, grief and loss, self-esteem concerns, relationship difficulties, and men’s issues, including the expectation to handle everything on your own. With teens and young adults, that often means identity development and the plain experience of feeling understood.

Therapeutic Approach

Zach’s approach is integrative, and he draws mainly on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). ACT helps you get clear on what genuinely matters to you and respond to difficult thoughts and feelings without letting them set your course. CBT works on the thinking patterns that keep a problem running, and on testing whether they hold up. He adds mindfulness techniques to strengthen emotional awareness and help you feel more present day to day.

Zach values practical strategies and skill-building. He also wants sessions to feel human. He brings warmth, curiosity, and honesty to sessions, and works with you to understand the patterns and pressures behind what you are struggling with rather than the surface symptoms alone.

Clients tend to appreciate the balance of support, authenticity, and directness. Zach’s aim is to help you build confidence, meet challenges with more clarity, and move toward a life that feels more like your own.

Background, Education & Experience

Zach earned his master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Kentucky and is a National Certified Counselor (NCC). During his clinical training he provided individual therapy and group counseling, facilitated anger management groups, and supported adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system.

Working across those settings strengthened his interest in anxiety, emotional regulation, identity, self-esteem, and major life transitions. Beyond his clinical work, Zach has mentored teens and young adults through the Boys & Girls Club and coaches men’s and women’s lacrosse at the high school and collegiate levels, work that continues to shape how he thinks about confidence, resilience, and accountability.

Outside of counseling, Zach stays active, hikes and spends time outdoors, travels, and spends quality time with friends, family, and his dog.