Adrian Cortez (he/him/él) is works with individuals, couples, families, and adolescents navigating identity development, trauma, relationship challenges, and life transitions. He is especially passionate about supporting sexual and gender minorities, Latine communities, immigrant populations, and clients whose experiences exist at the intersection of multiple identities.

As a DC native who has lived in Maryland for about 10 years, Adrian considers the DMV and its communities home. This sense of connection shapes the way he approaches therapy. He believes that everyone deserves a tailored safe space to experience openness with themselves and in their relationships, especially when exploring identity, healing from trauma, or learning what it means to feel fully seen.

Adrian is passionate about creating softness in a world where we are often forced to be hard. His therapy space prioritizes safety, comfort, deep empathy, humanness, and humor. He brings warmth and collaboration to the work, while also offering the gentle push that can help clients continue growing. In sessions, he aims to create a free-thinking space where all parts of a person can be welcomed, explored, and better understood.

Adrian’s approach is strengths-based, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and identity-affirming. As a couple and family therapist, he understands people within the context of their relationships, families, communities, and broader sociocultural experiences. He helps clients explore the stories they carry, the roles they have learned to occupy, and the patterns that may have once protected them but now feel limiting.

Adrian utilizes visuals, creativity, and collaboration in ways that feel tailored to each client and their relationships. He may incorporate Narrative Therapy, Experiential Therapy, CBT, mindfulness, systemic approaches, personalized genograms, reflective exercises, or future-self visualization to help clients make sense of their experiences and imagine new possibilities for connection and healing.

Adrian has experience working with BIPOC trans and queer young adults, Latine families with adolescents, LGBTQ+ couples, and clients seeking support around gender affirmation, family conflict, trauma, communication, and self-understanding. He has also helped clients connect with community resources related to medical, gender-affirming, educational, legal, and financial support.

Adrian earned his Master of Science in Couple and Family Therapy from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also completed his Bachelor of Science in Family Science. He has served as a therapist intern at the University of Maryland’s Center for Healthy Families, a bilingual community mental health counselor at Greenbelt CARES, a research assistant with Encuentros, and a group facilitator for LGBTQ+ couples through the TOGETHER Program. He is fluent in Spanish and English.

Adrian looks forward to sharing space in each client’s journey and, when life feels like a tunnel of darkness, helping them reconnect with the beam of light that may still be present within themselves, their relationships, and their communities.

At Harmony Holistic, Adrian is being supervised by Dr. Zachary Berman (#LCM909). He accepts clients in-person and virtually in Maryland.