Marissa Gaven

My own experiences with therapy, trauma, grief, and loss shaped my understanding of what meaningful support can look like - and what it can fall short of. I started this career out of spite (turns out, that’s a pretty solid motivator), but stayed because I wanted to offer something practical, authentic, and genuinely helpful. Today, I bring that lived perspective into my work, with a commitment to helping people heal without wasting their time.

I work best with teens and adults who have been through hell and are ready to make sense of their experiences, heal, and move forward. My areas of focus include childhood trauma, complex trauma (CPTSD), depression, anxiety, and grief, particularly for people who want a therapist who is direct, engaged, and unafraid to challenge them when needed. If you appreciate real conversations, a little humor, and a therapist who might occasionally drop an F-bomb, we may be a good fit.

Healing isn’t linear, and having a hard day doesn’t mean you’ve lost the progress you’ve made. You can celebrate the wins and grieve the losses at the same time; one doesn’t cancel out the other. Therapy isn’t about fixing yourself or checking boxes - it’s about understanding your experiences, building a relationship with yourself, and creating change that actually matters to you.

Expect genuine conversation, not a scripted interrogation or a room full of clinical jargon. We’ll get to know each other, explore what brings you to therapy, and begin identifying what you want to work toward at a pace that feels manageable for you. From there, we’ll collaborate on goals and figure out an approach that fits your needs, with no homework assignments or busywork - just showing up and doing the work together.

My own experiences with therapy, trauma, grief, and loss have taught me how important it is to feel genuinely heard, understood, and supported without being treated like a problem to fix. Those experiences inform my commitment to being transparent, compassionate, practical, and honest, even when the conversation gets uncomfortable. I believe therapy should feel like a real human connection where you can bring your whole self, laugh when it helps, fall apart when you need to, and never feel like you have to perform healing for someone else.

I take an integrative, trauma-informed approach that draws from EMDR and other therapeutic modalities rather than forcing every client into the same formula. Together, we identify your goals and adapt our work to your experiences, needs, and preferences, incorporating creative expression - including music - when words alone aren't enough. Your progress is measured by your own lived experience and how you feel, not by worksheets completed or boxes checked, because therapy should work for you, not the other way around.