About Marla
Marla Gentile is a Licensed Professional Counselor, LPC, and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, LPCC, practicing in California with four decades of experience. She focuses on helping people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, trauma, grief, and major life changes. Her work also addresses compassion fatigue and concerns around relationships, intimacy, and self-esteem.
Marla believes people know their own stories and brings a respectful, down-to-earth approach to sessions. She listens for strengths clients already use and builds from there.
How Marla works
Her style is calm and steady, aimed at making difficult topics easier to talk about. In sessions she uses approaches that connect emotions, body responses, and early relationship patterns. She draws on attachment-based ideas to look at how past bonds affect current relationships.
She also uses client-centered methods to follow each person’s pace and priorities. For trauma and painful memories she offers EMDR work alongside somatic ideas to address how the body holds stress. Mindfulness techniques are woven in to help with grounding and reducing day-to-day anxiety.
Psychodynamic perspectives help make sense of patterns that repeat over time. People who choose Marla often want a therapist who listens without rushing and who helps translate feelings into manageable steps. She supports practical problem solving, clearer communication, and rebuilding confidence after loss or change.
Marla lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Marla works with
The areas below are the ones Marla selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Registers | LPC, LPCC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 40 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | California |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Attachment-based work looks at how early relationships shape current bonds and emotional responses; online sessions use conversation and reflection to identify patterns and try new ways of relating. Client-centered therapy focuses on following the person’s priorities and offering nonjudgmental listening; in remote sessions this means tailoring pace and goals to what feels most useful. EMDR addresses traumatic memories through guided processing and bilateral stimulation; parts of EMDR can be adapted for video or phone work to reduce the hold of painful memories.Choosing the right approach is a conversation. The therapist will collaborate with the client to decide which methods to try first and will adjust plans based on progress and preference. That collaborative process helps match techniques to specific concerns like anxiety, grief, or relationship patterns.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people read facial cues and share a closer, face-to-face experience. Phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or a quieter audio check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging let someone send short updates, ask quick questions, or check in between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life while keeping the focus on making steady, useful changes.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
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Common questions
What concerns does she help address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How long has she practiced?
What credentials does she hold and where is she based?
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
What session formats are available?
How are sessions paid for?
How do I begin working with her?
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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