About Mari
Mari DeRienzo is a licensed professional counselor with 39 years of experience who helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, parenting concerns, and intimacy-related issues. She aims to make the first steps into therapy feel manageable and supportive. Mari uses a straightforward, nonjudgmental approach so people can say what’s really on their mind.
In sessions she listens closely and follows each person’s pace. She focuses on practical steps clients can use between meetings, such as experimenting with new ways to manage anger or soften relationship tensions.
Background and approach
She also addresses challenges like low self-esteem, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue with clear, doable ideas. Mari draws on several therapy approaches to fit different needs. She blends client-centered listening with cognitive behavioral tools to spot unhelpful thinking and try alternatives.
Motivational interviewing and solution-focused work help when someone wants short-term change or clearer next steps. Her background includes many years of clinical work in New Jersey and experience across a wide range of concerns, including addiction, family of origin issues, ADHD, and sexuality-related topics such as kink and alternative sexual cultures.
Mari welcomes people who identify as LGBT and those dealing with first responder stress or fatherhood concerns. Sessions are offered in English and can be scheduled in formats that fit today’s routines. Mari encourages people to take the small step of reaching out and seeing what a few sessions can do for clarity and coping.
How Mari’s approaches translate to online therapy
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and understanding each person without judgment. Online sessions let Mari follow a person’s lead, ask open questions, and reflect what she hears so people feel heard and seen. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps identify thinking patterns that feed stress or anxiety and then tries practical experiments to change them; this work transfers well to video or phone sessions where homework and thought records can be reviewed together. Motivational Interviewing supports people who want change but feel stuck; short focused conversations can help clarify goals and next steps.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Mari will talk with each person about their goals, try methods that match those goals, and adjust the plan based on what’s helpful. She values clear communication about what’s working and what needs to change so the work stays practical and goal-oriented.
Online therapy offers flexibility and easier access to regular sessions. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for worksheets, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be used for brief check-ins, and text-based messaging helps people communicate between sessions or when they need quick support. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and keep momentum between meetings.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does Mari help with?
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How long has she been practicing?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
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Which session formats are available?
How does billing work for sessions?
What do I do to get started?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Intimacy-related issues
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 39 years
- Licensed
- New Jersey, Arizona
- Languages
- English