Mara Bruckner
Supportive care for parenting and personal stress
- Credentials
- LMFT
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mara
Mara Bruckner is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California. She brings 22 years of experience from both independent practice and county and state-funded programs. She has worked directly with children, teens, and adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum and with people experiencing anxiety, depression, and other adolescent-related concerns.
Mara uses a warm, interactive style in sessions and often adds light humor when appropriate. She treats people with respect and adapts her methods to fit each person's needs.
Background and approach
Her sessions are collaborative - she invites clients to take an active role in shaping their goals and progress. Her work has included play therapy, applied behavior analysis support, and social skills groups for young clients.
In independent practice she has extensive experience supporting teens and adults with Asperger’s or high functioning autism, and she also sees adults with mood and anxiety concerns. Mara is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT, and has certification training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a practical approach often used for anxiety and depression.
She blends CBT with client-centered, psychodynamic, and solution-focused methods as needed. Parents who worry about behavior, social challenges, or emotional ups and downs often find her straightforward and calm. She aims to offer clear steps and manageable strategies while staying attuned to each person’s experience.
How therapy approaches translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and building understanding. The therapist follows the person’s lead, reflects what they say, and helps them clarify their own goals; this can be helpful for people who need support finding direction or feeling heard.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions. It uses practical exercises and small experiments to change unhelpful patterns and is often used for anxiety, depression, and relationship concerns.
Mara helps clients decide which approach to try and adapts methods during the process. Finding the right fit is collaborative - goals, preferences, and how someone responds guide adjustments over time.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to work together. Video calls approximate an in-person session, phone sessions can feel more personal for some people, and live chat or text messaging lets clients check in between meetings. These options make scheduling easier and can help families or busy adults keep therapy consistent when in-person visits are difficult.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Exploring how earlier relationships and patterns still shape the present, often over a longer stretch of time. It relies on conversation and reflection rather than exercises.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual dysfunction
- Social anxiety and phobia
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mara
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point