About Mary
Mary Cabarles is a licensed clinical social worker in California with 18 years of experience. She helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and life changes. She aims to create a calm space where clients can talk, plan, and find practical ways forward.
Mary’s background spans group homes, residential care, job coaching, and work with people coping with homelessness, domestic violence, and criminal justice involvement. She has supported people across the lifespan, including adults, older adults, and those in hospice.
Background and approach
These varied roles shaped her focus on real-world problems and everyday coping skills. In independent practice Mary focuses on trauma and abuse, addictions, compassion fatigue, self-esteem, and relationship and intimacy-related issues. She also addresses career concerns, coping with life transitions, and a wide range of family-related worries.
Additional areas of interest include aging and geriatric issues, caregiver stress, blended family challenges, and first responder concerns. Her approach blends practical, evidence-informed methods with a client-centered attitude. She draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Attachment-Based and Existential ideas to help people notice what matters and take workable steps.
Sessions tend to be conversational, with time spent on concrete strategies and planning. Mary began her independent practice during the pandemic to respond to increased stress and complex life pressures. She offers video, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging, and has more weekend availability for scheduling.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and making life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and offers practical tools to change unhelpful patterns. It is often used for anxiety, mood concerns, and coping skills. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and can help with intimacy-related issues, communication problems, and trust concerns.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Mary collaborates with each person to choose methods that fit their goals and comfort level. She may combine ideas from different approaches and adjust plans as progress is made, so the process stays tailored to what the client needs.
Online sessions offer flexibility and make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when being on camera is not needed, and live chat or text-based messaging can support quick check-ins or shorter conversations between sessions. These options help people keep therapy consistent while juggling work, caregiving, or other commitments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English