About Marissa
Marissa Yoshikawa-Machado is a licensed mental health counselor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and the strain of life changes. She also supports those dealing with trauma, relationship and family concerns, low self-esteem, and workplace pressures. Marissa uses clear, practical steps so people can feel steadier in day-to-day life.
She keeps sessions straightforward and calm. Conversations focus on what is most pressing, like worry that won't go away or trouble communicating with others.
Background and approach
Marissa uses gentle mindfulness practices to slow racing thoughts and cognitive behavioral tools to spot unhelpful thinking patterns. Her approach centers on listening first. She creates space for people to talk about current struggles and painful past experiences.
Then she helps set short-term goals and small steps that fit each person's life in Hawaii and beyond. Marissa combines supportive listening with action-oriented work. That might mean practicing a new way to respond to stress, testing a different belief, or using breathing and grounding techniques between sessions.
She aims to make therapy useful and manageable. Over the past four years she has worked in several clinical settings and with varied concerns. Her LMHC credential stands for Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
Sessions are offered in English and arranged to fit clients' schedules. People who reach out meet someone who values honesty, patience, and steady progress. Marissa invites interested people to take a first step toward clearer thinking and better coping.
How her approaches translate to online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on understanding each person's experience through reflective listening and empathy. It helps people feel heard and more able to open up about worries, relationships, or difficult memories. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks down how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence each other and teaches practical skills to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns. Mindfulness Therapy trains attention on the present moment with breathing and grounding exercises that can reduce reactivity and increase calm.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Marissa will discuss goals and preferences and help decide whether more skill-based CBT, mindfulness practice, or a client-centered conversation-first approach fits best. That decision is made collaboratively and can change over time as needs evolve.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can fit a walk or a busy schedule when video is impractical. Live chat and text messaging are useful for brief check-ins, skill practice, or reaching out between longer sessions. These options make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into daily life.
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What this therapist works with
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Also listed
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- Hawaii
- Languages
- English
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