About Mara
Mara Bruckner is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 22 years of experience in California. She has worked in independent practice and in county and state funded programs. Her background includes helping people facing anxiety, depression, relationship strain, parenting stress, and phobias.
She has extensive experience supporting people on the autism spectrum, including work with children, teens, and adults. That work included play-based approaches, behavior-focused programs, social skills groups, and guidance for parents.
Background and approach
In independent practice she has often worked with teens and adults who have Asperger’s or high functioning autism alongside co-occurring anxiety or mood concerns. Her sessions are described as warm and interactive, with a touch of humor when appropriate. She treats each person with respect and adapts the approach to fit their needs.
Clients are invited to participate actively in planning goals and next steps. Mara uses a mix of methods to address problems like phobias, obsessive behaviors, relationship issues, and life transitions. She draws from cognitive approaches to reshape thoughts and behaviors, psychodynamic ideas to look at patterns, and solution-focused strategies to set practical steps forward.
Client-centered work keeps the focus on the individual’s experience. People reach out to her for a range of concerns including stress, grief, addictions, identity questions, and life changes. Her practice aims to help people build coping skills, improve communication, and find clearer direction in daily life.
How Mara’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Client-centered therapy focuses on understanding each person’s experience and building a therapeutic relationship that guides the work. It helps when someone needs a listening space and support for making personal choices and finding their own solutions.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at patterns of thoughts and behaviors and teaches practical techniques to reduce anxiety, fears like phobias, and mood symptoms. It often involves setting small homework steps and trying new behaviors between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist collaborates with clients to decide which combination of methods fits best based on the person’s goals, symptoms, and preferences. That decision can change as progress is made and new issues appear.
Online sessions offer flexible ways to connect: video calls for face-to-face conversation, phone sessions when video is not practical, live chat for quick check-ins, and text-based messaging for ongoing support. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and let clients choose the format that helps them engage most effectively.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual dysfunction
- Social anxiety and phobia
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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