About Olga Montgomery, LCSW

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in Virginia and Florida. I am a mother. I am a wife. I am an avid learner. I am a personal and professional enthusiast of mindfulness-based, compassion-focused behavioral therapy. I am a griever who knows brokenness well. I struggled, practiced, and learned to lean into love within loss in my life’s voyage.

My journey to this role and space has been winding and heartfelt. My first degree is in economics and government from Claremont McKenna College, where I sparked a curiosity for the interconnectedness of people and culture and context. My second degree is in psychology summa cum laude from Florida Atlantic University. I was fortunate to begin my work in research at FAU where I learned applied statistics, experimental design, and marveled at the complexity and depth of the human mind, as well as the very real limitations of controlled studies. I then spent a few years working in neurodegenerative disease research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; my role took me into patient homes to complete neuropsychiatric assessments where I met families, sat on couches, pet dogs, and found myself humbled by the gut-punch, heart-hurt, and complexity of living with and loving others with early onset dementia. That experience motivated me to pursue graduate school in clinical social work. I pursued my Master of Social Service from the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research where I was a Named Scholar of Gerontology. After graduating, I pursued clinical licensure in Virginia while working in palliative medicine, home hospice, and grief group facilitation.

Throughout my academic and professional training, I experienced multiple heartbreaking, sudden losses. My grief informed my training, education, and what I do (and don’t do) as a therapist. It wisened me towards respect for people who choose to engage in grief work and the toughness of self-compassion. I am still a woman who is, amongst other things, a griever. I hold this closely to heart. I also hold purposeful passion that human beings are more than brains in vats, mothers are more than productivity machines, life is more than a long to-do list, and women’s experience as women matters.

Today, I offer individual and group therapy to grieving women. I engage in public speaking, providing trainings on women’s grief care to therapists and occasional podcast appearances to the public. I offer service to the social work community as Co-Chair of the Social Work Special Interest Group at the Association for Contextual and Behavioral Science.

I aspire for myself to balance rigorous training with heartfelt practice, to know and honor my inner true north, and to walk courageously as a whole person in my imperfect, complex, beloved, mortal life. My values are: to delight, to kindle, and to nurture.