Online psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and couples therapy by secure video, with John J. Hartman, Ph.D., FABP, a psychologist licensed in the District of Columbia.
Online therapy in Washington, DC, by secure video. John J. Hartman, Ph.D., FABP, is a licensed psychologist in the District of Columbia (license PSY200001229) and a board-certified psychoanalyst with over 50 years of clinical experience. Every session is virtual, so it makes no difference whether you are on Capitol Hill or in Petworth, Georgetown, Brookland or Anacostia. The District is his home license: for anyone in DC during a session, it is all the authority the work needs.
In Washington, psychologists answer to the DC Board of Psychology, part of DC Health. The Board regulates the practice of psychology in the District: it evaluates applicants, issues licenses, and receives and reviews complaints.
Nobody has to take a website's word for a credential. DC Health's public license search lets anyone look up a psychologist by name or license number. Dr. Hartman's DC license is PSY200001229; he is also licensed in Florida and Michigan.
If you are in the District during the session, the DC license covers it directly, and no compact is involved.
Often, yes. The District belongs to PSYPACT, the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, enacted by the Council as D.C. Law 23-190. It lets an authorized psychologist licensed in one member jurisdiction practice telepsychology with people in the others. What counts is where you are physically located during the session, not where you live.
Dr. Hartman holds PSYPACT's Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT), Mobility Number 11223, with the District of Columbia as his home state. The DC license is the base, and the compact carries it into participating jurisdictions, including Maryland and Virginia: a desk in Silver Spring, a hotel room in Alexandria. In Florida and Michigan, his licenses there apply.
PSYPACT publishes the member jurisdictions, and its verification directory lets anyone confirm whether a psychologist holds a current APIT. For anywhere else, ask before the session so that availability for that location can be confirmed.
All sessions are held by secure video: 50 minutes for individuals, 90 for couples. You need a computer, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone, a connection that holds for the whole session, and a room where no one can overhear you.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy usually means one or two sessions a week, psychoanalysis three or more. That rhythm is easier to keep when nobody has to cross town for it: the session comes to a rowhouse on the Hill, an apartment near Dupont Circle, or a room at work with the door shut.
Hours are by mutually agreed arrangement, generally Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Booking starts with a free 15-minute consultation: call (813) 787-2048 or send an email.
Privacy has two halves: the technology at Dr. Hartman's end and the room at yours. The American Psychological Association's Guidelines for the Practice of Telepsychology, updated in 2024, ask psychologists to protect patient data from unintended access, disclosure, loss or corruption, and to explain the benefits and risks of the technology before treatment begins.
For your half, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in its telehealth privacy advice for patients, suggests a quiet place where no one can listen in, your own device, and a password-protected connection rather than public Wi-Fi. It adds that telehealth visits should not be recorded.
The APA guidelines also ask psychologists to plan for emergencies where the patient actually is. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which is free, confidential and available around the clock, or call 911. This website is not monitored for emergencies.
Dr. Hartman has practiced by video for years, and in his experience the depth of the work carries. The APA guidelines are measured on the point: emerging research, they note, indicates that specific, appropriately adapted video treatments are as effective as their face-to-face counterparts.
The method does not change with the medium. Psychoanalysis is the deepest form of the work: frequent sessions that allow lasting patterns to emerge, be understood, and change. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy applies the same understanding less often; the difference between the two is mostly one of frequency. Couples therapy is for marital, relationship and sexual conflicts.
Even the screen's glitches become material. A frozen frame can look exactly like a cold stare. Transference, the old expectation that arrives before the new person does, makes that worth talking about.
Understanding why you feel what you feel is the beginning of lasting change.
John J. Hartman, Ph.D., FABP, took his A.B. at Harvard College, magna cum laude, his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan, and his psychoanalytic training at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. A former tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, he is now Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of South Florida, a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis, a training and supervising analyst, and the author of six books. Over 50 years, his patients have ranged from adolescence to old age.
Use DC Health's public license search and enter his name or license number, PSY200001229. It shows the license type and current status. His PSYPACT authorization, Mobility Number 11223, can be confirmed in the PSYPACT verification directory.
Yes. Every session, for individuals and couples alike, is held by secure video. You choose the room; it only needs to be private, with a steady connection.
It depends on where you will be. In the District, his DC license covers the session; in Maryland, Virginia or another participating PSYPACT jurisdiction, his APIT authorization does; in Florida or Michigan, his licenses there. Anywhere else, ask before booking so that availability for your location can be confirmed.
Individual sessions (50 minutes) are $325 and couples sessions (90 minutes) are $475. The first 15-minute consultation is free, and a sliding scale is available; ask whether you may be eligible. Sessions are private pay. If your plan covers out-of-network mental health care, you may submit his bills to your insurer for reimbursement.
If working together makes sense, a first session is scheduled and the work begins. You talk about what brings you, in whatever way it comes out: there is nothing to prepare and no right way to begin. If Dr. Hartman is not the right fit, he will help you find someone who is.
The first 15-minute consultation is free and carries no obligation. All sessions are online by secure video, for people in Washington, DC.
Call (813) 787-2048 Prefer to write first? Email Dr. Hartman