Kumi Pledger , MD, LCPC

Kumi Pledger is a Maryland-based clinician with an MD and an LCPC and ten years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people reduce worry, manage stress, improve sleep, and find more enjoyment in daily life. Kumi speaks English and Japanese and works with a wide range of concerns related to mood, relationships, and identity.

Her background includes work with anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, and bipolar-related concerns. She also supports people facing grief, parenting strain, career stress, and issues related to intimacy and relationships. Additional focuses include attachment and abandonment issues, caregiver stress, and challenges tied to gender dysphoria and LGBT concerns.

Kumi draws on several therapeutic approaches to match the needs of each person. She uses attachment-based ideas to look at how past relationships affect current patterns, and she integrates client-centered methods to keep sessions focused on the person in front of her. Cognitive behavioral techniques and elements of dialectical behavior therapy are used for skills development and behavior change.

Sessions aim to be compassionate and respectful. Kumi works to identify practical steps people can take between sessions, such as sleep strategies, coping skills for anxiety, and communication techniques for strained relationships. Her style emphasizes collaboration and personal insight rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

People can expect straightforward, plain-language conversations that focus on real-world problems. The goal is clearer thinking, fewer unhelpful behaviors, and better day-to-day functioning rather than technical labels or promises of outcomes.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Attachment-based work looks at patterns that grew from early relationships and how they affect current connections; it can help with abandonment, attachment issues, and relationship difficulties by identifying repeating dynamics. Client-centered therapy centers the session on the person's experience, using empathy and reflection so the individual feels heard and can discover their own solutions. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on practical skills to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which is useful for anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, and mood symptoms.

Finding the right approach is treated as a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and the specific concerns someone brings, then adapt techniques from these approaches to fit the person. Sessions often combine listening, skill-teaching, and simple experiments to try between meetings.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions can fit into a busy day or when bandwidth is limited, live chat works for shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving, or travel while keeping the focus on progress and practical tools.