About Marilyn
Marilyn Rukaj meets people where they are and helps them work through stress, anxiety, relationship challenges, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, and depression. She has seven years of clinical experience and holds credentials as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor. Conversations are practical and focused on what matters most to each person.
Marilyn keeps sessions respectful and sensitive. She listens first, then tailors dialogue and a plan to fit individual needs.
Background and approach
That means creating goals together and adjusting the approach as progress is made. Many discussions include coping strategies, communication practice, and ways to rebuild confidence. Her background includes helping people navigate abandonment issues, attachment concerns, codependency, and commitment fears.
She also addresses caregiver stress, blended family tensions, chronic illness and pain, dissociation, and challenges tied to aging. These areas often overlap with anxiety and depression, and Marilyn helps sort what feels most urgent. Marilyn draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to guide sessions, and she explains options in clear, everyday language.
She works in New Jersey and holds both New York and New Jersey credentials as LMHC and LPC. Sessions are offered in English. Her style is collaborative and down-to-earth.
Clients can expect direct guidance, practical tools, and steady support while they make changes. Marilyn emphasizes small, manageable steps toward more stable mood and healthier relationships.
Evidence-based approaches and online options
Marilyn uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques presented in clear, practical ways. One common method focuses on building coping skills for stress and anxiety through step-by-step practice and breathing or grounding exercises to reduce immediate overwhelm. Another approach centers on communication and relationship skills, using role-play and structured conversation practice to improve how people express needs and set boundaries.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will review symptoms, goals, and personal preferences and then try techniques that fit the individual. Progress is tracked and methods are adjusted over time so the plan stays relevant and useful.
Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to make care more flexible. Video is useful for fuller conversations and visual cues, while phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text messaging allow brief check-ins, quick skill coaching, or support between longer sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy schedules and different lifestyles.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- New York, New Jersey
- Languages
- English