I worked with my Wendt Center counselor and not only did I learn a lot about how to deal with and accept loss, I learned about myself. I found joy from within and I stopped feeling alone.

 — Wendt Center Adult Client

Services We Offer

• Adult Counseling
  Our professional, licensed and experienced counselors work with children, teens, and adults individually, as families, and in support groups to ease the pain of loss. We believe there are many paths to healing, but they all begin with providing support and loyalty to people in times of illness, loss and death. We offer counseling in our centrally located downtown office and our satellite office in Northwest Washington, DC.

• Camp Forget-Me-Not
  Camp Forget-Me-Not is a free weekend, sleep-away grief camp that gives children an opportunity to enter a safe space—away from their everyday lives—to gently explore the normal process of grief.  At Camp Forget-Me-Not, each Camper is paired with an adult Buddy for the entire weekend. With a mixture of traditional camp-like activities and grief work, Camp Forget Me-Not provides a safe and enjoyable environment where each child’s self expression is heard, valued and honored.

• Children's Services
  Through play — the universal language of children — children are able to effectively express their feelings. Wendt Center teams of therapists, interns and volunteers provide play therapy at our offices, and travel to local schools, community centers, and other social service agencies throughout the metro area to facilitate onsite support for children.

• Crisis Response
  Wendt Center counselors serve as a steady support to children, adults, families and caregivers affected by local and national crises. These have included September 11, the sniper killings in the fall of 2002 in the metropolitan Washington area, workplace and school crises, and neighborhood violence.

• Crime Victim Services 
  Through the Wendt Center’s Homicide Outreach Project Empowering Survivors (HOPES) Program we provide comfort and support for families, individuals, and communities coping with homicide-related deaths. This collection of services especially designed to meet the needs of people coping with homicide. Services are provided by licensed clinicians, program staff, and carefully trained volunteers with expertise in the areas of trauma, grief and loss, and child and family therapy. Through our HOPES Program, we provide comfort, information and practical assistance to people of all ages mourning the death of a loved whose life was taken byw homicide.

• Friends Volunteers
  Our dedicated Friends Volunteers receive training so they understand grief and loss. Friends provide emotional and practical support to individuals and families affected by life-challenging illness, loss or grief and assist in facilitating support groups and other activities for children.

• Recover Program
  Seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year, Wendt Center counselors are at the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the morgue, to provide counseling and support to families who must come to complete the identification process of their deceased loved one. Many of the deaths are unexpected and are all-too-often the result of violence. Our counselors provide emotional and practical support with a special emphasis on including grief care for the children affected by these deaths.

• Training and Education
  Our Training and Education Program offers workshops, conferences and other educational forums on a variety of topics related to loss, bereavement, and trauma.