About Marla
Marla Carman works from a client-centered and practical approach to help people manage strong emotions and difficult life events. She combines Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, and mindfulness to help clients reduce distress and build skills. Marla holds licensed professional counselor credentials as an LMHC and an LPC and brings 21 years of experience to her practice in Arizona.
Marla emphasizes clear, actionable steps in sessions. She helps people notice what matters most to them, learn habits that reduce anxiety and depression, and practice small changes that add up.
Background and approach
Sessions often focus on skills, real-life problem solving, and brief exposure or processing work when trauma is involved. She has worked with a wide range of concerns including stress, relationship and intimacy issues, trauma and abuse, grief, addictions, sleep and eating problems, anger, self-esteem, and career transitions. Additional focus areas include caregiver stress, codependency, body image, fertility and end-of-life concerns.
Marla tailors plans to each person’s current needs and goals. In trauma-focused work she uses EMDR alongside mindfulness and acceptance strategies. That combination is used to reduce the intensity of difficult memories and to build tools for coping with triggers.
For relationship and communication struggles she applies client-centered listening with practical CBT techniques. Marla offers sessions by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging to fit different schedules. She aims to create a steady, supportive space where people can try new ways of thinking and behaving and track progress over time.
If someone is looking for focused, experienced help in Arizona, Marla supports that process.
Online approaches that help with trauma and everyday stress
Marla often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help people clarify what matters most and take small actions that match their values. ACT focuses on accepting difficult thoughts and committing to meaningful steps, which can reduce avoidance and increase purpose.She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to identify unhelpful thoughts and teach practical skills. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and changing patterns that keep problems going. For trauma work she includes Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to process distressing memories while pairing that work with mindfulness and grounding techniques.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Marla collaborates with each person to pick and adapt methods based on their needs, goals, and comfort level. She checks in regularly and adjusts techniques so sessions stay focused and useful.
Online therapy offers flexibility in how people connect. Video calls are good for conversations that benefit from face-to-face contact, phone sessions can fit a busy schedule or lower bandwidth, live chat supports quick check-ins or brief reflections, and text messaging lets people share between sessions. These options help people keep therapy consistent while balancing work, caregiving, or other commitments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- 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
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 21 years
- Licensed
- Arizona, Florida, Washington
- Languages
- English