Myrna Marinik

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in working with adults who are struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, and/or chronic illness. Other areas of focus that I can help you with include anger, stress-management, physical and learning disabilities including ADD/ADHD, life-stage issues and self-esteem. My professional career began as a certified American Sign Language Interpreter in 2001 and quickly progressed into earning a Graduate degree in Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin.

My training provided the experience needed to work in a community mental health clinic providing high quality mental health care to residents in Austin, TX for 6 years. My interests in whole health led me to San Antonio to work with chronic illness, transplant, and geriatric care for roughly 10 years.

Along this journey, I have had the opportunity to work with multinational clients seeking refugee services, worked as the Associate Director for Student Accessibility Services at a private university and currently involved in a fulfilling career as a counselor to veterans of our Armed Forces.

I believe in structured, evidenced based care such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. These therapeutic approaches have been rigorously researched and have been found to be effective, ethical and safe. They lead to better outcomes and improved quality of life.

In our first session together, we will start with brief introductions, then dive into the intake assessment. Next we will discuss the specific challenges you are facing as well as create a tailored treatment plan for us to work through in follow-up sessions. You will be encouraged to come up with 1-3 goals you would like to focus on while in counseling. It might help you to think about the following question: “If I were to wake up tomorrow and I felt better, what would that look like? How would I know I am doing better? What are some helpful things I wish I could start doing? What are some negative coping behaviors I wish I could stop doing?”

Ongoing care entails structured sessions which include a pre-determined framework with clear objectives, roles and responsibilities. I will often provide a link to a CBT workbook we will use to help keep us on track and moving forward in reducing symptoms and developing the skills and tools you seek.