LMFT, 14 years of experience
Hi! I'm Cristina Marra, LMFT. I have 15+ years of experience. I like to help adults and adolescents deal with life's challenges. I help mostly with depression and/or anxiety. My therapeutic approach depends upon the presenting problem and client. The approaches I rely on the most are client-centered, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and EMDR, as needed. I enjoy helping people by listening in a way that the client feels heard and understood. This then allows for better work to happen as strategies and coping tools are developed. I enjoy working with many different types of issues as we are all complex. My communication style I believe in, an open, caring, honest, and direct style of communication. I don't believe any subject is off the table.
The first session is about getting to know your background and what brings you to therapy. We will jointly begin to peel back the onion and start to understand not only how your background may have shaped you but also how currently held beliefs may be impacting the current situation. The first session is the beginning of a productive journey and healing partnership. I applaud you for taking the first step to feeling better.
Clients seem to feel very comfortable with me and that is very important in therapy. Creating a safe space in which clients can be themselves and explore their thoughts and feelings is critical to healing. The "magic" in therapy, as I see it, comes from the relationship that exists between therapist and client. It is through this relationship that presenting issues can be understood and worked with. In addition to creating a safe space, my varied experiences allow me to relate to a lot of different clients. I am multi-cultural, have worked in various settings (including corporate America for many years), and have held many roles.
The majority of individuals I work with present with issues of anxiety, depression, and adjustment issues due to transitions in their life that impact either their school, work, or overall life well-being. Some clients have underlying trauma that we sometimes address through EMDR. Many feel stuck and/or overwhelmed. Being in therapy helps them move forward in productive ways.
1 rating with written reviews
June 27, 2025
Cristina is a good listener, empathic and open minded. She is insightful and direct in communicating back. I really appreciate the warmth of the sessions and the empowering that I leave with after meeting with her.
CBT is very helpful in understanding underlying maladaptive cognitions and replacing them with more helpful or healthy ones. For example, a client might present to therapy feeling depressed or anxious. By peeling back the emotions a cognition of "not being good enough" can be revealed. Through work in therapy, this notion can be replaced with a more useful one of "while I am not perfect, I am good enough".
Psychodynamic is particularly useful in understand where some faulty beliefs and feelings originated. Early childhood often holds the key. Understanding current behaviors in light of past experiences can help clients better understand current behaviors and lead to greater acceptance and a decreased sense of "I am crazy or I am broken"
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. Its origins lie in the treatment by reprocessing of trauma. It can be very useful, however, as a way of changing maladaptive behaviors and attitudes into more positive and adaptive ones.
Mindefulness-based therapy allows the client to have greater control over their thoughts and, therefore, emotions. All of us have a DMN (default mode network) we default to. By becoming more aware of that default network through increase mindfulness the client can gain greater control of the mind, thoughts and feelings. This therapeutic approach aims at giving clients tools for greater mindfulness.