Mary Cabarles , LCSW

Mary Cabarles is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in California with 18 years of professional experience. She brings a broad social work background that began during her college years and has since included roles in group homes, residential facilities, job coaching, care for people with co-occurring disorders, homelessness services, domestic violence programs, criminal justice work, and public sector positions.

Her clinical experience spans trauma, abuse, family dynamics, and work with a wide range of ages and life stages, including elementary-aged children, adolescents, teens transitioning out of systems of care, adults, older adults, and hospice clients. This varied practice has shaped an approach that attends to both immediate needs and longer-term patterns in relationships and coping.

Mary launched her private practice during the pandemic in response to heightened stressors such as job changes, financial strain, caregiving pressures, relationship challenges, social and racial tensions, air quality concerns, wildfire displacement, and climate-related stress. She aims to offer a supportive space for people coping with those kinds of intersecting pressures, providing listening, planning, and practical guidance.

Her clinical focus includes trauma and abuse, self-esteem, compassion fatigue, stress and anxiety, addictions, LGBT concerns, relationship and family issues, grief and intimacy-related concerns, career challenges, and coping with life changes. She also works with aging and geriatric issues, attachment concerns, blended family dynamics, caregiver stress, and first responder issues. More availability on weekends.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care

Mary integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment-Based Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into her practice. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps clients clarify their values and build willingness to face difficult thoughts and feelings while taking meaningful action - it can be useful for stress, anxiety, and navigating life changes. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on understanding patterns in relationships that develop from early connections and helps people reshape how they relate to partners, family, and themselves, which can be especially helpful for intimacy and family dynamics. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, offering practical strategies to reduce symptoms of anxiety, manage stress, and address unhelpful patterns.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Mary works collaboratively with each person to identify which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, and she adjusts techniques over time as progress and circumstances evolve.

Online therapy with Mary is offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, providing flexibility for scheduling and access from different locations. These options make it easier to fit sessions into busy schedules, maintain continuity of care during life transitions, and choose the communication style that feels most comfortable for each person.