About Mara
Mara Bruckner is a licensed marriage and family therapist who brings 22 years of clinical experience to her work in California.
Background and approach
She began her career in agency settings and later moved into independent practice, building a broad background in behavioral approaches and therapy for people across different life stages. She often sees people dealing with stress and anxiety, depression, relationship and intimacy concerns, and the effects of grief and life transitions.
She also supports those coping with addictions, self-esteem struggles, bipolar disorder, and workplace or career stress. Additional focus areas include parenting challenges, family of origin issues, communication problems, emptiness, and feelings of isolation.
Mara uses a mix of approaches to fit each person’s needs. Her work draws on client-centered methods that prioritize the person’s perspective, cognitive behavioral techniques to identify and change unhelpful patterns, psychodynamic ideas that look at long-standing themes, and solution-focused strategies for practical steps forward.
She describes her style as warm and interactive, and she often uses gentle humor to ease difficult conversations. Sessions are offered in English and take place online through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging.
Mara’s practice model uses a subscription system for sessions, and the subscription can be canceled at any time. People starting therapy complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule sessions based on therapist availability.
Mara aims to work collaboratively so clients help shape goals and the path forward.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Client-centered therapy focuses on the person’s perspective and aims to create a respectful, collaborative space for talking through concerns. It helps when people want to be heard and to shape their own goals rather than follow a strict plan.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at patterns of thought and behavior and teaches practical skills to change them. It is often used for anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, and habit-related problems because it gives clear tools to practice between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will review symptoms, history, and goals and recommend which methods to try first, then adjust based on what helps. Clients are invited to give feedback so the plan stays aligned with their needs and preferences.
Online sessions offer real flexibility for people juggling work, school, or family. Video calls provide face-to-face interaction, phone sessions can fit into a busy day or require less bandwidth, live chat supports shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging allows ongoing contact between appointments. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent and to pick the format that best matches each moment in a client’s life.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual dysfunction
- Social anxiety and phobia
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English