About Marcia
Marcia Tharp is a licensed clinical social worker practicing in Montana. She holds LICSW and LCSW credentials and brings 18 years of experience to her work. Marcia focuses on practical support for everyday struggles and major life transitions.
Marcia meets people where they are and listens first. She believes people hold many of their own answers and helps them find those answers through guided conversation. Sessions typically involve identifying concrete steps to reduce stress and manage strong emotions.
Background and approach
Her approach blends client-centered care with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness practices. She uses these methods to help people notice unhelpful thoughts, try different behaviors, and build routines that feel manageable. Relaxation and narrative techniques are used when helpful to make sense of difficult experiences.
Marcia has worked across settings and with varied concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, grief, sleep problems, parenting strain, anger, and ADHD. She also offers support for issues such as caregiver stress, adoption and foster care matters, chronic illness, attachment concerns, and coping with life changes. In sessions, she focuses on creating an open space for honest talk without judgment.
She aims for clear, practical tools people can use between meetings. Taking the first step can feel hard, and she encourages people to notice that reaching out is progress.
Therapeutic approaches you can use online
Marcia often combines Client-Centered Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people in straightforward ways. Client-centered work focuses on listening carefully and supporting each person's own goals. It is useful for people who want a collaborative, nonjudgmental space to talk through concerns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. It helps people try simple experiments to change unhelpful thinking and build new habits, which can ease anxiety and depression. Dialetical Behavior Therapy methods and mindfulness are also part of her work when emotion regulation and distress tolerance are needed. Mindfulness practices help people notice their experience without getting swept away. DBT-informed skills teach concrete ways to manage intense feelings and reduce impulsive reactions. Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process; Marcia works with each person to choose methods that fit their needs, goals, and preferences in a collaborative way. Online therapy offers flexibility for different routines and needs. Video calls let people work face to face from wherever they are. Phone sessions can fit into a short break and require less bandwidth. Live chat and text-based messaging support quick check-ins and ongoing skill practice between sessions. These options make it easier to maintain momentum and try strategies in everyday life.Frequently asked questions
What concerns does she address?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- Montana, Washington
- Languages
- English