About Marilyn
Marilyn Bryan DeBernardo is a New York Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with 25 years of practice. She focuses on helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. She also supports those coping with addiction, grief, relationship strain, and life changes.
Her work is straightforward and goal-focused. She listens first, then helps clients name the problems that matter most. Sessions often include tools to manage overwhelming feelings and practical steps for daily life.
Background and approach
She aims to help people regain a sense of control and move toward the life they want. Marilyn draws on a mix of approaches to fit each person’s needs. She uses cognitive behavioral ideas to spot unhelpful thinking patterns.
She brings in emotion-focused and acceptance-based strategies when feelings and attachment issues are central. Dialectical behavior skills can be used for intense emotions and relationship difficulties. Her background includes long experience with addiction and co-occurring mental health issues.
That history informs how she addresses codependency, substance use concerns, and relapse prevention. She also works with people facing medical or caregiving stress, aging-related challenges, and trauma-related symptoms. Sessions are offered in English and Marilyn is based in New York.
She helps people identify realistic goals and practical next steps. If someone wants steady support for anxiety, coping skills, or recovery from addiction, she brings years of clinical perspective and a practical orientation.
How her approaches guide online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and focus on values-based actions. It’s useful for persistent anxiety and life transitions where avoidance has become a pattern. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It provides practical tools to test thoughts and build new routines that reduce anxiety and improve mood. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers skills in emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness for intense emotions and relationship struggles.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. Marilyn will talk with each person about goals, what has worked before, and preferences for change. Together they decide which strategies to try and adjust them as progress is made, keeping therapy collaborative and solution-focused.
Online sessions can be scheduled as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation and skill practice. Phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat or text messaging can help keep momentum between sessions or suit people who prefer written communication. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and keep steady support while working on anxiety, addiction recovery, or coping skills.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Motivational Interviewing
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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