About Marla
Marla Gentile is a licensed professional counselor with four decades of experience. She draws on long practice to help people facing stress, anxiety, trauma and loss. Marla uses a steady, person-focused style and encourages small, practical steps toward relief.
She sees grief and life changes as processes that unfold at different speeds. Marla helps people talk through what they’ve experienced and find ways to cope day to day. She also works with compassion fatigue and supports those feeling worn down by caregiving or emotionally demanding roles.
Background and approach
Marla blends attachment-focused thinking with client-centered and mindfulness work. That mix lets her pay attention to relationships, emotional patterns, and present-moment coping skills. Sessions include listening, reflective feedback, and exercises people can try between meetings.
Her approach also includes psychodynamic ideas and EMDR when trauma memories are causing strong reactions. She helps people notice repeated patterns, understand where they came from, and practice new responses that reduce suffering over time. Clients can expect calm pacing and an emphasis on strengths.
Marla invites people to name what matters to them and to set goals that feel achievable. She practices from California and brings 40 years of experience as a guide rather than an authority.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current interactions and emotional patterns. Online sessions can help people notice repeated relationship responses and practice new ways of connecting or setting boundaries in their daily life.Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening, empathy, and helping clients discover their own answers. In virtual meetings this looks like reflective conversation, pacing that follows the person’s lead, and collaborative goal-setting that the client controls.
EMDR is used to address traumatic memories that continue to cause strong reactions. Adapted for remote work, EMDR sequences and guided processing can be delivered via video calls with careful pacing and clear instructions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the client about needs, goals, and preferences and together decide which methods to try. That collaborative process helps tailor sessions so they feel useful and manageable.
Online formats offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow visual connection for deeper interaction, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits quick check-ins, and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and continue care when travel or schedules make in-person meetings difficult.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Marla typically address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she bring?
What credentials and region are associated with her practice?
Which languages are supported and can international clients connect?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- California, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina
- Languages
- English