LICSW, 10 years of experience
New to Grow
I’m MaKenna Arrigo, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and Marriage & Family Therapy doctoral candidate with over a decade of experience supporting children, teens, adults, and families. I specialize in helping clients navigate anxiety, trauma, family stress, and life transitions with a grounded, compassionate, and practical approach. My work blends evidence-based modalities with nature-based and experiential strategies to create a supportive environment where clients feel understood and empowered. Above all, I’m committed to helping individuals and families grow with clarity, confidence, and connection.
In our first session, we’ll take time to get to know each other and begin building a comfortable, collaborative foundation for our work together. I’ll ask about what brings you to therapy, your goals, and any important background information, while also giving you space to share at your own pace. Together, we’ll begin identifying the patterns, strengths, and stressors that shape your current experience and outline a plan for moving forward. My goal in the first session is for you to leave feeling heard, supported, and confident about the next steps in your therapeutic journey.
My greatest strengths include my ability to connect quickly, create a grounded and supportive therapeutic space, and help clients feel truly understood. I blend evidence-based methods with a practical, strengths-focused approach that empowers clients to make meaningful changes. I’m skilled at identifying patterns, simplifying complex challenges, and guiding individuals and families toward clarity, confidence, and healthier relationships.
I am best positioned to serve clients who want a supportive, whole-person approach as they work through anxiety, trauma, identity development, or major life transitions. I particularly enjoy supporting kids, adolescents, and caregivers who want to better understand emotional and behavioral patterns and build healthier family dynamics. Clients who value growth, curiosity, and practical tools tend to thrive in our work together.
I utilize a strength-based approach by helping clients identify and build upon the skills, values, and internal resources they already possess. Rather than focusing solely on symptoms or deficits, I highlight resilience, past successes, and natural abilities to foster empowerment and confidence. This method supports clients in creating meaningful change by recognizing their capacity to overcome challenges.
In my work with families, I draw from Structural Family Therapy to assess family dynamics, boundaries, and interaction patterns that impact functioning. I help families reorganize these structures by strengthening subsystems, realigning roles, and fostering healthier communication. This approach allows the family unit to work together more effectively, support one another, and reduce conflict.
I integrate mindfulness into my practice to help clients develop awareness, grounding, and emotional regulation. Through guided practices such as breathwork, sensory grounding, and mindful reflection, clients learn to stay present and respond to stress with greater calm and clarity. Mindfulness supports clients in reducing reactivity, building coping skills, and cultivating a more compassionate relationship with themselves.
I use CBT to help clients understand the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and to learn practical skills for managing symptoms. My experience includes supporting clients in identifying unhelpful thinking patterns, challenging cognitive distortions, and developing healthier coping strategies. CBT provides a structured, evidence-based framework that helps clients make immediate, measurable progress toward their goals.
My experience with ACT involves helping clients develop psychological flexibility through mindfulness, acceptance strategies, and values-guided action. In practice, I support clients in noticing and unhooking from unhelpful thoughts while learning to tolerate difficult emotions without avoidance. Together, we clarify personal values and use them as a foundation for committed, purposeful steps toward a more meaningful life.