Marla Gentile

Marla Gentile is a licensed professional counselor with four decades of clinical experience. She practices in California and has helped people manage stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief, and major life transitions. Marla emphasizes the client’s own strengths and views each person as the expert on their story.

Her style centers on listening closely and building a collaborative relationship. She uses a mix of approaches to meet what each person needs. Sessions focus on practical steps people can take between meetings, and on understanding patterns that keep difficulties repeating.

Marla draws on attachment-based and client-centered ideas to make space for emotions and relationships. She also uses EMDR and mindfulness techniques when those methods fit the goals. Her psychodynamic and somatic knowledge helps uncover long-standing themes and body-based responses linked to stress and trauma.

People seek her help for compassion fatigue, relationship and intimacy-related concerns, self-esteem struggles, and career worries. She also supports those dealing with abandonment, caregiving strain, aging-related questions, cancer-related stress, and family of origin issues.

Her approach is steady and encouraging. Marla aims to help people find clearer direction, feel more grounded, and handle change with more confidence. She invites prospective clients to take the first step and begin the matching process.

How her approaches translate to online work

Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on patterns in close relationships and how those patterns shape feelings and behavior. It helps when relationship history affects current stress or intimacy-related concerns.

Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's experience and priorities. The therapist listens without judgment and follows the client's pace to build trust and clarity.

EMDR uses guided attention to process memories linked to trauma and intense distress. When appropriate, it can reduce the hold of painful memories and make everyday reactions less overwhelming.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Marla will discuss goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful, and then tailor methods in collaboration with the client.

Session formats were not specified in the biography, so confirm current options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, such as saving travel time, fitting a session into a lunch break, or avoiding the need to be on camera for every meeting. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises, guided mindfulness practices, and EMDR-style processing to remote settings when appropriate.