Marilyn Bryan DeBernardo, LMHC

Marilyn Bryan DeBernardo is a New York Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with 25 years of counseling experience. She works with adults who are struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, grief, and life changes. Her style is direct and supportive, focused on helping people find practical steps they can use right away.

She draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Emotionally-Focused Therapy, and client-centered techniques to tailor care to each person. Sessions often include skill-building for managing strong emotions, strategies to change unhelpful thinking, and attention to values and relationships. Therapy emphasizes small, manageable changes that add up over time.

Marilyn has a long history of helping people cope with substance use, codependency, relationship problems, trauma, and parenting stress. She also supports those facing life events such as divorce, caregiving strain, aging concerns, and chronic illness. Her approach combines practical tools with attention to how past experiences shape present choices.

People who choose her work with a partner in planning goals, practicing new skills, and tracking progress between sessions. She offers straight talk and concrete exercises rather than only discussion. Her aim is to help clients regain a sense of control and move toward the life they want.

She practices from New York and provides services in English. Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so people can choose what fits their schedule and needs.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Marilyn commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people identify unhelpful thinking patterns and try different behaviors. CBT is practical and problem-focused, and it can help with anxiety, depression, and managing cravings.

She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which focuses on clarifying values and taking meaningful action even when hard feelings remain. ACT can help people tolerate difficult emotions while building a life that matters to them. Her work includes client-centered elements that prioritize the person's goals and perspective.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Marilyn will discuss goals and preferences, try methods that fit the person's needs, and adjust the plan as progress is made. Clients are invited to give feedback and help shape therapy over time.

Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls let people work face to face from different locations, phone sessions can be useful when bandwidth is limited, live chat provides short check-ins, and text-based messaging helps when a written check-in or review of tools is preferred. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep practicing skills between sessions.