Merry Walensa, LPCC

Merry Walensa is a California-licensed counselor with 17 years of experience helping people navigate grief, relationship struggles, and big life changes. She works with people facing anxiety, depression, stress, and issues with self-esteem and motivation. She also supports clients dealing with career difficulties, addiction concerns, parenting strain, and compassion fatigue.

Merry uses a blend of approaches and brings an open, nonjudgmental style to sessions. She includes spiritual and existential perspectives for clients who find meaning and values helpful in their healing. Her work focuses on practical steps clients can take between sessions as well as how they make sense of their current situation.

In the therapy room she encourages honest talk about feelings and choices. She helps people notice patterns, try new behaviors, and practice different ways of relating. Sessions aim to build clearer goals and useful skills for everyday life.

Merry asks new clients to schedule a video appointment first before considering phone or chat options. She values advance notice for cancellations and recommends keeping regular appointments to maintain progress. Her approach balances empathy with practical coaching to help people move toward a more fulfilling life.

People often come to her for help with chronic illness or pain, end-of-life and hospice concerns, codependency and commitment issues, or problems with loneliness and life purpose. She combines Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, client-centered listening, and cognitive-behavioral techniques to match each person’s needs.

How Merry Uses Evidence-Based Approaches Online

Merry commonly draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Client-Centered Therapy to guide her work. ACT helps people clarify their values and take small steps toward a meaningful life while accepting difficult feelings rather than fighting them. Client-centered work emphasizes listening, empathy, and supporting each person to lead the pace and focus of sessions.

She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for clients who want concrete tools to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT teaches practical strategies such as behavioral experiments and thought records that people can practice between meetings to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, or manage mood.

Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Merry collaborates with clients to decide which methods fit their goals, needs, and preferences. She will adjust the mix of approaches as progress is made so people get what helps them most.

The therapist requests that new clients schedule a video appointment first and notes that other session types may be used afterward. Because session formats are set by the practice, confirm current options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules, allow for shorter check-ins when needed, and remove travel time so people can work on goals between daily responsibilities.