Marla Carman, LMHC, LPC

Marla Carman uses practical, person-focused therapy to help people move through difficult life moments. She blends cognitive behavioral ideas with acceptance and mindfulness to help clients manage stress, anxiety, grief, and relationship strain. Marla is a licensed mental health counselor and a licensed professional counselor with 21 years of experience. She practices in Arizona and speaks English.

Marla often works with people facing trauma, addiction, and mood concerns such as depression and bipolar conditions. She also helps with caregiver stress, aging and geriatric issues, end-of-life concerns, and complex family or intimacy topics. Her approach draws on EMDR for trauma work alongside mindfulness and acceptance strategies for daily coping.

In sessions Marla focuses on clear steps clients can try between meetings. She uses thought-focused exercises from cognitive behavioral therapy and values-based actions from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to build coping skills. Mindfulness practices are introduced to reduce reactivity and improve sleep and eating patterns.

She pays attention to how relationship patterns and family history affect current struggles. That can include work on communication, codependency, abandonment wounds, and handling life transitions like divorce or caregiving roles. Practical goal setting is a core part of her work.

Marla aims to create a calm, respectful space where clients feel heard and guided. She helps people identify what matters most and then supports steps toward those goals. To begin, prospective clients follow the site intake steps to match and schedule sessions according to availability.

Online approaches that focus on values and trauma recovery

Marla uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify personal values and take small, actionable steps toward them. ACT is often helpful when someone wants to reduce avoidance and live more in line with what matters, even when feelings are difficult.

She also draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. CBT gives practical exercises for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and habit changes that can be practiced between sessions.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Marla discusses goals and preferences with each person and will suggest which methods to try. That decision is collaborative and can change as needs evolve.

Confirm the current online session options before booking, since formats are not specified in the biography. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life - for example, by avoiding travel time, offering shorter check-ins when needed, or allowing sessions to be scheduled around caregiving and work demands. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises, mindfulness practices, and cognitive techniques to remote sessions so clients can keep making progress between meetings.