Clinical Orientation
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Marilynne’s clinical training has focused on existential-transpersonal depth psychotherapy. Her areas of focus include managing anxiety, depression, stress-related conditions, PTSD, chronic pain and medical conditions, life transition, authentic self expression, conscious relationship, and transforming life and relational trauma.
Mariliynne’s work with couples focuses on mindful presence, attuned connection, conscious communication, and the sacred path of deep intimacy, and she has trained in several approaches to creating loving relationship including the integrated approaches of Relational Life Therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples. For more on my approach with couples, see Conscious Relationship under my Areas of Focus.
She has completed advanced training in the treatment of trauma through the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, a comprehensive psychotherapy model designed to treat the effects of acute trauma and complex traumatic stress disorder as well as the related attachment, relational, and developmental trauma. She received EMDR certification through the EMDR Institute. She has been a volunteer psychotherapist for The Coming Home Project, a non-profit organization committed to helping transform the wounds of war for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, their families, and their service providers. She is a weathered travel guide from her own healing journey and life work.
Her clinical work has been influenced by modern psychology and the ancient practices of meditation and yoga. She draws upon many therapeutic approaches including somatic psychology, intersubjectivity, attachment theory, and existential-transpersonal depth psychotherapy. Some of the teachers that have informed her work include the inward searching work of James Bugenthal, depth work of Carl Jung, existential psychotherapy of Irving Yalom, somatic awareness of Arnold Mindel, Eugene Gendlin and Milton Trager, existential-transpersonal depth psychotherapy of Bryan Wittine PhD, and the treatment of trauma of Pat Ogden PhD, Janina Fisher PhD, Francine Shapiro PhD, Peter Levine PhD, Bessel van der Kolk MD, and other current leaders in the field of trauma.
Her mindfulness and somatic approaches have been inspired by over 20 years experience teaching meditation and yoga, teaching relationship workshops, being a practitioner of Trager Psychophysical Integration body work for 15 years, and she has practiced Tibetan Buddhist, Zen, and Vipassana meditation for over 25 years.
Marilynne’s work with couples has been informed by the teachings of Terry Real PhD (Fierce Intimacy and The New Rules of Marriage), Sue Johnson (Hold Me Tight), Harville Hendrix (Getting the Love You Want), Peter Pearson (In Quest of the Mythical Mate), Marshall Rosenberg (The Center for Nonviolent Communication), and John and Jennifer Welwood (Love and Awakening: Discovering the Sacred Path of Intimate Relationship).
Marilynne’s depth work is informed by 30 years of holistic study, practice, and teaching of psychotherapy, relationship, yoga, meditation, breath work, body work, and movement. The teachers who have inspired her practice include the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödron, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Thich Nhat Hahn, Chödon Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Jack Kornfield PhD, B.K.S. Iyengar, Milton Trager, Judith Lasater PhD, Elise Miller, and Donald Moyer.