Washington, DC
Being human takes practice.
About
Healing is an act of truth-telling.
Whether you are competing on the field, leading an organization, teaching in a classroom, performing on stage, or advocating in court, high-pressure environments often force us to quiet our own experiences just to keep up.At The Practice of Living, the work isn’t about quick fixes that place the entire burden back on your shoulders, nor is it about teaching you how to adapt to extractive spaces. Instead, this practice helps you center yourself in presence and question the environments themselves.
By unlearning the pressure to constantly perform, we make room to reclaim our identity and capacity.Through therapy, group experiences, and consulting, we partner with individuals and communities to put well-being into everyday practice. Living is a collective daily practice.
Welcome to The Practice of Living.
Individual Therapy
Healing Outside the Pressure to Perform
The Practice of Living is a space for high performers to slow down, reconnect with their bodies, and reclaim their stories on their own terms.
Somatic practices, mindfulness, creative expression, and narrative work move beyond models that ask you to adapt to demanding environments. Grounded in intention and radical acceptance, sessions make room for less burnout and a clearer sense of who you are beyond what you produce. For those pulled between many versions of themselves, the work also supports mending identity fragmentation and letting go of the guilt that comes with slowing down.
Session Details:
Virtual sessions for adults (18+)
50-minute appointments
Rate: $210 per session
Group Experiences &
Collaborative (un)learning
Collective Over Individual
Presence isn’t just about slowing down. It’s how we clear away the noise so we can reflect, feel, and organize clearly. We facilitate spaces that make room for that presence, so your group can stop reacting and start co-creating care that lasts.
The Space
No slide decks or lectures from the front of the room. Together, we step out of isolation and practice what collective care looks like in real time. These sessions give your group room to set down the demand to perform, connect with who they are, and reflect on shared realities. Through body awareness, honest dialogue, and being seen and heard by the group, we move past surface-level survival. You leave with what resonates, shaped by the shared presence, learning, and unlearning in the room.
Who Should Reach Out
Teams and groups carrying high demands: athletes and sports collectives, legal advocates, creative ensembles and performing artists, educators, non-profit leaders, and the foundations and community partners who support them. Ideal for team leaders, coaches, directors, and executive directors ready to invite their group into a more honest kind of conversation.
When Do Groups Book
Groups come to us before pressure turns into burnout, or while they’re in it, when they want room to pause, reflect, and decide together. That might be the start of a season or a new project, a stretch of mounting pressure or exhaustion, the aftermath of a loss or a crisis, or a moment of change such as new leadership or the end of a chapter. Teams, staff, coalitions, and community partners also book us for retreats, offsites, and gatherings when they want a facilitated, exploratory experience in place of a standard meeting or presentation.
What Your Group Leaves With
What most meetings never produce: an honest picture of where everyone stands, a shared understanding of what is driving the pressure, and one or two commitments the whole group owns.
What to Expect
Start Here: The Team Reset
A 90-minute facilitated session for groups of 8 to 20, in person in the DC area or virtual. We begin with a brief planning conversation, then move through grounding, honest dialogue, group reflection, and a closing where your group decides what to take forward. Starting at $1,800. Community and non-profit rates available on request. Longer sessions, series, and retreats are designed with you.
Work With Us:
Fill out the contact form below, and we will set up a brief call to discuss your group’s goals, size, and timing, and then follow up with a plan and pricing.
Please Note: These sessions are educational and community-building. They are not group therapy and do not replace individual mental health care.
Clinical Supervision & Consulting
Qualified Social Work Supervision
Seeking supervision that aligns with your values? The Practice of Living provides reflective supervision for D.C. social work interns and clinicians working toward LICSW licensure. Together, we explore case conceptualization, ethics, power dynamics, and structural systems to support your growth as a liberation-centered practitioner within complex institutional spaces.
Immigration Mental Health Evaluations
Culturally grounded psychological evaluations and expert documentation to support law firms, defense teams, and immigration cases for Extreme Hardship Waivers.
Fill out the inquiry form below to schedule a time for consultation.
Crystal McDougle, MSW, LICSW
Hello! I’m Crystal McDougle, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and founder of The Practice of Living in Washington, DC. I provide individual therapy for high-performing adults, facilitate groups for teams and community organizations, and am pursuing a doctoral degree in social work at Howard University, where I conduct research in sport social work.
My personal experience in Division 1 Women’s Track and Field at Florida Atlantic University showed me what performance culture can cost a person’s health and sense of self. Exhaustion and identity fragmentation are not always individual problems to solve. Sometimes they are information about the conditions in which we live and work.
I grew up in Central Florida, trained in South Florida, and now work in DC. Several experiences shaped my work and my philosophy: the cultural collectivism philosophies introduced during my time in South Africa, the creativity school social work, the priorities of case management for youth in the juvenile justice system, and the intention and embodiment I practiced as an art director at a nonprofit farm school organization focused on social practice art. Coaching varsity high school sports and developing leadership training with LEAD Brevard in Rockledge, FL grew my capacity for community and service. Each of these settings taught me a different part of the same lesson: care works best when it is creative, intentional, embodied, and shared.
Those experiences shape The Practice of Living, which is about intention and experiencing. It is slowing down to make meaning. In spaces I enter, I collaborate to think critically about identity, agency, and collectivism as part of the healing and integration process. Living is both personal and shared while getting back to knowing yourself, unlearning inherited expectations, and making room for connection and choice. It isn’t a perfect destination but rather a daily practice of personal truth. The practice starts with dropping the performance and mask.
Because being human takes practice.
Across all my work, I hold to the belief that collective wisdom and lived experience are the real foundations for change. To stay grounded outside of this work, I make meaningful room for friends, family, running, travel, dance, writing, and the quiet daily spiritual rituals that bring life back into balance.
Interested in exploring partnerships with The Practice of Living?
The next step is to schedule a free 15-minute consultation by completing the inquiry form and connecting via the button below.
Email: hello@thepracticeofliving.com
Business Hours:
By appointment only.
Land & Labor Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that much of our work takes place on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (Anacostan) peoples. We honor their enduring relationships with this land and acknowledge the displacement, dispossession, and ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples that accompanied the formation of Washington, D.C. and the United States.
We also acknowledge our debt to enslaved Africans and their descendants, whose labor, knowledge, and suffering built and sustained the economy, infrastructure, and institutions of this nation while they were denied their humanity, freedom, and rightful ownership of the wealth they created.
Learn more about the native lands you reside on: native-land.ca