About Marissa
Marissa Katz Bellani is a licensed mental health counselor who helps people manage anxiety, stress, depression, grief, and relationship concerns. She practices from a warm, interactive stance and aims to make sessions feel approachable and direct. She works with people facing life transitions, addiction struggles, intimacy challenges, and identity-related stress.
Marissa blends talk therapy with practical tools. She draws on cognitive behavioral techniques to notice patterns and test new responses.
Background and approach
She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas to help clients clarify values and take small, meaningful steps. Client-centered work keeps sessions focused on each person's experience and choices. Her background includes eight years in the behavioral health field and a Master of Arts in counseling studies; she holds the LMHC credential.
Marissa has experience supporting people with attachment concerns, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and family of origin issues. She also addresses trauma, loneliness, and sexual intimacy questions. Sessions tend to be conversational and action-oriented.
Marissa helps people build coping skills, practice new interactions, and set manageable goals. She encourages creative approaches when they fit a person's interests and strengths. Marissa practices in Hawaii and offers services in English.
She accepts international clients and provides online sessions by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Her style aims to be nonjudgmental and focused on steady, practical progress.
Therapeutic approaches and online sessions
Marissa often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, clarify what matters most, and take small actions aligned with their values. This approach can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions.She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and testing new ways of thinking and behaving. CBT is practical for managing anxiety, depression, and coping skills. Client-centered therapy is another thread in her work, which means sessions center on the person's experience and priorities rather than a fixed agenda.
Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. Marissa will talk with each person about goals and preferences, then tailor methods and pacing. She checks in regularly and adjusts the plan based on what helps most.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video lets people work face-to-face from different locations, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits shorter check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing, asynchronous contact. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or other routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Addictions
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Massachusetts, Hawaii
- Languages
- English
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