Marla Gentile, LPC, LPCC

Marla Gentile is a licensed professional counselor with four decades of clinical experience. She practices in California and brings a steady, experienced presence to sessions. Marla focuses on relationship concerns and related struggles like intimacy, trust, and communication. Her approach is straightforward and respectful. She treats each person as the expert on their own life and looks for strengths to build on. Marla helps people talk through stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and major life changes in plain language. She uses a mix of methods to fit each person’s needs. That can include talking about early attachments and patterns, noticing how the body holds stress, guided mindfulness practices, and focused trauma work when needed. Sessions aim to be practical and paced to what feels manageable. Marla has worked with people facing compassion fatigue, caregiving strain, cancer-related concerns, and career or life-purpose questions. She also supports folks dealing with abandonment, family of origin issues, codependency, and the emotional fallout of separation. People who do well with her style tend to want a collaborative guide rather than step-by-step orders. She invites curiosity about patterns and offers clear ways to try new approaches between sessions. Taking the first step is often the hardest part, and she emphasizes steady, realistic progress over quick fixes.

How therapeutic approaches guide online work

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns. It helps people notice how they relate to others and learn new ways to connect and set boundaries. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building on a person’s own strengths. The therapist offers empathy and reflection while the client leads the pace and goals of work. EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a trauma-focused method that helps lessen the emotional intensity of traumatic memories. It is often used when past events continue to affect present relationships and day-to-day functioning. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, history, and what feels tolerable. Choices about methods and pacing are made collaboratively so the plan fits the person rather than the other way around. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life, such as avoiding travel time or fitting a short appointment during a break. It also lets people see a licensed professional from different locations, but session options are not listed in the biography. Confirm which session formats are offered before booking so you know what to expect.