LMFT, 10 years of experience
Hi there, my name is Marissa Barcelos (she/her) and I have been providing counseling services for the past ten years for children, teens, adults, and families. I have school based counseling experience, and love working with children and teens as they process big feelings, learn coping skills, navigate social media, relationships, and decreasing self-harm. I am trained in Play Therapy, Therapy, EMDR, and Motivational Interviewing. I am also trained in Perinatal and Postpartum Mental Health and love to work with new parents.
For our first session we will go over the intake paperwork. But most importantly, I want us to get to know each other so you feel safe and comfortable in the therapy space. First session may have questions that look like "tell me a little about yourself, what music do you like, what is your favorite show to binge, do you have hobbies". As you feel comfortable, we will then start to take steps towards your goals.
I am compassionate, kind, and understanding. I like to use humor to help you feel more comfortable, and want to utilize your strengths to help you achieve your goals. I am also trauma informed and utilize that in my practice. Ultimately, I am here to help you go where you would like to go, I let you lead and help provide tools along the way.
I have a heart for working with parents who are struggling with perinatal and postpartum symptoms (anxiety/depression), adoption, fertility issues, symptoms of trauma from having a child stay in the NICU, birth trauma, as well as grief with miscarriage. I understand the combination of fear and joy of parenthood, the “what do I do now?”, and the struggle of navigating through your new role and identity. I also have a heart for those struggling with feeling anxious or sad/down., or those who had a loss of someone they care about. I understand how heavy the world can feel and can help provide a space for you to share about it and learn some tools to help cope. I believe that we are all doing our best and sometimes we need a little extra help or a non judgmental space to talk it out.
I have a trauma informed lens, I believe that many have experienced trauma in their life and have the approach in my practice that we take small steps to a healthier you. I acknowledge that therapy can be scary and vulnerable, and it may be really scary to trust someone new. I will share all the steps on what therapy will look like, what the process is like, and steps to help decrease those trauma feelings.