Therapy can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be! Telling your story and sharing your deepest thoughts and fears may make you feel like you don’t even know where to start. I get it! I’ve been there! Therapy is your time and space to unlock the healing potential you already have within you.

STYLE

Marissa’s personal experience as a client and professional both influence how she works with individuals.

Her style is direct with healthy doses of compassion, respect, and empathy. She’ll challenge you, but only as quickly and intensely as feels right for you, on that day and in that moment. You are in the driver seat; Marissa is by your side to help guide you through whatever may be blocking your untapped strengths so that clarity and transformation become familiar states of being.

ORIENTATION

Marissa’s therapeutic orientation reflects her passion for integrating Indigenous wisdom from elders with current research in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Her clinical practice is deeply connected to empirically-supported, evidence-based modalities, such as: Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindfulness, Internal Family Systems, Narrative, Solution-Focused, Brain-Based, Existential, Cognitive and Behavioral, and Somatic approaches. She weaves these tools throughout her work with clients…from session to session, and sometimes multiple in a single session. What is most important to Marissa is that YOU feel seen, validated, and supported as you take your first steps toward transforming relationships with yourself and with others.

Marissa tends to work mostly with clients who identify with one or more of the following descriptors:

Gen Z or Millennial Adults who…

• are in transition, whether it be coming out of or growing into a new career/relationship/school, or who might be exploring a new identity or taking on a new role in their life.

• struggle with anxiety that impedes their ability to live fully and authentically. Especially those fiercely independent badasses who wear a mask and don’t always let on to what they may be battling within.

• are experiencing grief and loss, whether it be the loss of a loved one, the loss of one’s role in a community or relationship, or the anticipation of a loss.

• are part of the LGBTQ+ community and could be at any stage of embracing and exploring their identity and relationships.

• wish to explore their racial and cultural identities and how those identities impact the way in which they move through our world.

Marissa also specializes in helping people process trauma, intense emotions, and pain by utilizing a technique known as Brainspotting.

Brainspotting is a mode of psychotherapy that is both brain-based and relational. In Brainspotting, we locate an eye position relevant to the issue you’d like to work on and utilize bilateral stimulation, so that the interrupted or unresolved emotional or physical experiences in your limbic system can be accessed. Mindfully doing this work together in a safe environment promotes relief from intense memories, experiences, and emotions.

Brainspotting was developed by David Grand, PhD, a Master Trainer and Practitioner in EMDR. Grand noticed that by combining brain-based therapies (like EMDR) and talk-therapy, clients could process difficult experiences and emotions in a much faster and gentler way than with just talk or brain-based therapies alone.