About Marilyn
Marilyn Rukaj helps people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, low mood, or relationship strain. She introduces straightforward steps and steady support for people who want clearer thinking and more control over daily life. Marilyn is licensed as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor.
She has seven years of clinical experience and practices in New Jersey. She works with people coping with trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, and motivation problems, as well as those living with depression.
How Marilyn works
Her approach is practical and person-focused. She listens first, then co-creates a plan that fits each person's goals and situation. Conversations are tailored to what helps that individual make small, meaningful changes over time.
Marilyn also pays attention to related challenges such as abandonment concerns, attachment issues, codependency, and caregiver stress. She supports people affected by chronic pain, illness, or disability and those navigating blended family dynamics and communication problems. People meet her for help with commitment and control issues, avoidant or dependent personality patterns, dissociation, and the fallout of disaster-related stress.
She emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion while helping clients build practical coping skills and clearer ways of relating.
What Marilyn works with
The areas below are the ones Marilyn selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Registers | LMHC, LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 7 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | New Jersey |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Marilyn uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on practical change and recovery. One approach helps people learn skills to manage anxiety and stress by breaking problems into smaller steps and practicing new reactions. Another approach focuses on processing trauma and abuse through paced conversation and grounding strategies to reduce distress and improve daily functioning.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Marilyn will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and pace. She adjusts the plan as progress is made and checks in regularly to make sure the approach still fits.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for deeper conversation. Phone sessions can be useful when video is not possible or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text messaging suit shorter check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options help fit sessions into busy days and different routines.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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