Marcela Malcolm

My name is Marcella Malcolm, LMFT, I am a psychotherapist with over 25 years of experience helping individuals navigate life’s challenges and build more fulfilling, balanced lives. I specialize in trauma work, including treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as personality disorders, and most other mental health disorders. As a generalist, I offer support for a wide range of emotional and relational concerns.

My therapeutic approach integrates Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Gestalt Therapy, Family Systems and practical skill-building techniques to help clients regulate emotions, improve relationships, and develop healthier coping strategies. I work collaboratively with clients to build insight, increase self-awareness, and create meaningful, lasting change.

I am deeply committed to creating a warm, trusting, and nonjudgmental space where clients feel safe to explore, process and heal from their experiences. I believe that a strong therapeutic relationship is essential for healing, and I bring authenticity, compassion, and honesty into every session.

My focus is on helping clients not only process and heal from past trauma, but also strengthen their ability to manage stress, navigate crisis, and feel more grounded and empowered in their daily lives. So whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck in patterns that no longer serve you, or ready to work through trauma, I offer a consistent, congruent, supportive presence to help you move forward.

My approach is grounded in creating a warm, trusting, and authentic therapeutic relationship where you feel seen, accepted, and safe to explore and process even the most difficult parts of your experience.

I integrate evidence-based and experiential modalities, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Gestalt therapy, and Family Systems to support meaningful and lasting change. DBT offers practical, real-life skills to help you manage overwhelming emotions, navigate relationships more effectively, expand your ability tolerate distress, become mindful and thereby build resilience. Together, we focus on mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and communication—so you can feel more in control and grounded in your day-to-day life.

Gestalt therapy complements this work by helping you deepen your self-awareness in the present moment. Through an experiential and collaborative process, you’ll gain insight into patterns that may be holding you back, resolve internal conflicts, and reconnect with a more authentic and empowered version of yourself.

Lastly by adding the Family Systems perspective, I help clients understand how trauma and emotional patterns are shaped within relationships and carried forward over time. Together, we identify internal roles and protective patterns that once served a purpose but may no longer be helpful. This lens allows us to reduce shame, build self-understanding, and gently work through trauma in a way that feels safe and grounded.

My goal is to not only help you understand yourself more fully, but to support you in creating real, sustainable shifts—so you can move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and emotional balance.

Starting therapy can feel like a big step, and it’s completely normal to come in with a mix of emotions—whether that’s hope, uncertainty, or even hesitation. My goal in our first session is to help you feel unconditionally accepted, safe, heard, and understood from the very beginning.

We’ll spend time getting to know what brings you in, what you’ve been experiencing, and what you’d like to get out of therapy. You’re welcome to share at your own pace—there’s no pressure to have everything figured out or to tell your entire story right away.

I’ll also ask some questions to better understand your background, current challenges, and strengths, while beginning to identify how I can best support you. Together, we’ll start to clarify your goals and discuss a path forward that feels collaborative and tailored to your needs.

Most importantly, the first session is about building a sense of trust and connection. You can expect a space that is warm, respectful, and nonjudgmental—where you can begin to feel safe exploring whatever is on your mind.