About Marilyn
Marilyn Ramirez-Torres greets people with a calm, straightforward approach. She is a licensed clinical social worker in California with nine years of experience. She focuses on concerns such as trauma and abuse, LGBT issues, grief, low self-esteem, and depression.
Her style is practical and respectful, with an emphasis on the client’s own strengths and choices. Marilyn begins by listening closely to what matters most to each person. She helps identify patterns that cause pain and works with clients to try simpler ways of coping.
Background and approach
Sessions are meant to feel like a space to think things through and practice small changes between meetings. Her background includes nearly a decade in mental health services in California. That experience gives her familiarity with a range of life stresses, including chronic illness, caregiver strain, attachment and abandonment concerns, and struggles with isolation or purpose.
She draws on what has worked before and tailors her approach to the situation at hand. Marilyn encourages people to use their strengths as the foundation for change. She offers steady guidance while inviting clients to set the pace and goals.
The intent is to leave people better able to manage emotions, make decisions, and cope with setbacks. She communicates in English and works with people using video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Getting started involves a short matching questionnaire and scheduling a first session once a plan is chosen.
How evidence-based techniques are used online
Marilyn uses well-established, evidence-based techniques to guide sessions in straightforward language. One common approach focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them against real-life evidence to shift mood and behavior; this can help with depression and low self-esteem. Another useful method centers on skills for regulating intense emotions and reducing impulsive reactions, which often helps after trauma or during times of high stress.Finding the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences, try techniques that match those goals, and adjust the plan together as needed. Clients decide the pace and which methods feel most useful, so the work stays practical and tailored.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, each with practical advantages. Video is good for face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit more easily into a work break. Live chat and text messaging allow short check-ins or written reflections between longer sessions. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of care and fit therapy into a busy life.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English