About Marina
Marina Villanueva is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California who helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship struggles. She speaks English and Spanish and aims to make first steps feel less overwhelming for someone looking for change.
Background and approach
Marina keeps conversations direct and respectful. She listens for what matters most to each person and shapes sessions to match those needs.
She emphasizes compassion and sensitivity while helping people think through next steps. In sessions she focuses on real-life problems and practical coping skills.
That can include calming techniques for anxiety, steps to rebuild trust after infidelity, or ways to process past abuse and its effects. She also supports people facing major life changes and challenges with caregiving or parenting demands.
Marina brings eight years of clinical experience to her work and uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques tailored to each client. She aims to create clear goals and steady progress rather than rely on jargon or one-size-fits-all plans.
People can expect a collaborative tone in therapy. Marina helps identify patterns like attachment difficulties, guilt and shame, or cultural and immigration-related stress, then offers practical strategies for managing them.
Her bilingual skills can make it easier for Spanish speakers to explain sensitive experiences. Overall, Marina works to make therapy approachable and useful.
She focuses on small, actionable changes that add up to improved day-to-day functioning and greater emotional ease.
Practical approaches and online therapy options
Marina uses evidence-based techniques that focus on concrete change and emotional processing. One approach emphasizes building coping skills for anxiety and stress, teaching short exercises to reduce overwhelm and improve day-to-day functioning. Another approach centers on processing trauma and abuse at a pace that feels manageable, helping people make sense of painful memories and reduce their impact on current life.Choosing the right approach is part of working together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped in the past, then test methods that fit each person's needs. That collaborative exploration helps shape the plan as therapy continues.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when a longer session is helpful, while phone sessions are an option if bandwidth is limited or screens feel tiring. Live chat and text messaging support brief check-ins, homework prompts, or ongoing reflection between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and keep momentum between appointments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Attachment issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English, Spanish