About Marla
Marla Carman uses a practical, client-centered approach to help people manage stress and anxiety. She brings 21 years of experience as a licensed mental health counselor and licensed professional counselor. Sessions aim to be straightforward and focused on what matters to each person.
Marla blends Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with cognitive behavioral techniques and mindfulness to address worry, mood difficulties, and relationship strain. She explains skills clearly and practices them together with clients so new habits can stick.
Background and approach
EMDR is also listed among her approaches for people who have trauma-related memories they want to process. Her work covers a wide range of concerns, including grief, addictions, sleep and eating struggles, self-esteem, and career-related stress. She also helps people facing family-of-origin issues, caregiver stress, and intimacy-related problems.
Marla names compassion fatigue, bipolar mood concerns, and life transitions among areas she supports. Marla holds LMHC and LPC credentials and practices in Arizona. Her style is down-to-earth and collaborative.
She focuses on small practical steps that fit into everyday life rather than long, abstract explanations. People who choose Marla can expect a mix of skill teaching, reflective conversation, and concrete planning. The goal is clearer choices and better coping in day-to-day situations.
She encourages clients to try short experiments between sessions and to track what helps them most.
How Marla Uses Evidence-Based Approaches Online
Marla commonly draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and commit to values-based actions. ACT focuses on what matters to the client and teaches skills to reduce avoidance and increase meaningful activity.She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to map patterns of thinking and behavior that maintain worry or low mood. CBT sessions include identifying thoughts, testing them with small experiments, and building practical coping strategies that can be practiced between sessions.
EMDR is one of the methods she lists for addressing traumatic memories when that is needed. In EMDR work, clients and the therapist follow a structured process to reduce the emotional charge of troubling memories and to build more adaptive beliefs about the self.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Marla will discuss goals and preferences, try methods together, and adjust the plan based on what helps most. She aims to match techniques to the person's pace and comfort level rather than applying a single method to everyone.
Online therapy with Marla offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video lets people use visual connection for skill demonstrations and conversation. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is low or a check-in fits a work break. Live chat or messaging can suit quick check-ins, mood tracking, or when someone prefers shorter written exchanges. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life while using the same approaches and practical exercises one would do in person.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Can people outside the U.S. work with her?
What session formats are available?
How are fees handled and how do I begin?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 21 years
- Licensed
- Arizona, Florida, Washington
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.