Marisa Esparza, LPC

Marisa Esparza is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Texas who helps people facing stress, anxiety, parenting strain, and mood challenges. She works with adolescents and adults, and she often supports those dealing with trauma, addiction, ADHD, and identity concerns. Marisa aims to make sessions straightforward and focused on practical steps people can try between meetings.

She draws from cognitive behavioral approaches to help clients notice and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. She also uses acceptance and commitment ideas to help people clarify values and take action even when emotions are difficult. Attachment-based perspectives inform her work with relationship and family-related concerns.

Marisa trained at the University of Texas at El Paso, earning a Master of Education in Mental Health Counseling in 2015 and a Bachelor of Education in 2011. Over the past decade she has worked across inpatient units, outpatient programs, and community teams. Those roles included program management and front-line crisis work, which built experience with high-risk situations and coordinated care.

Her background includes running groups, conducting psychological and risk assessments, and collaborating with medical staff and treatment teams. She has experience providing psychiatric rehabilitative skills training and crisis assessment in community settings. This mix informs a practical style that balances safety, skill-building, and problem solving.

Marisa is an LGBTQIA advocate and emphasizes supporting young people who are exploring identity. She approaches sessions with attention to communication patterns and aims to help clients build skills for day-to-day life.

Practical therapeutic approaches for online care

Marisa often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people identify thinking patterns and test new, more helpful behaviors. CBT can be useful for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and managing ADHD-related challenges. She also relies on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients clarify their values and take meaningful steps even when difficult emotions are present; ACT is helpful for stress, chronic worry, and life transitions.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try strategies together, and adjust methods based on what works. Sessions can include skill practice, values work, or attachment-focused conversations depending on the person's needs and preferences.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, offering flexibility for different schedules and comfort levels. Video allows face-to-face conversation and screen-sharing for worksheets, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or for a shorter check-in, live chat offers a written back-and-forth in real time, and text messaging supports ongoing prompts and brief coaching between sessions. These options help fit therapy into busy lives and varied routines.