Services Provided

Providing Counseling and/or Coaching for individuals, couples, families, and groups for adolescents and adults.

Treatment specialization includes:

• Therapy for Depression, Anxiety, and Transitions
• Individual Counseling
• Individual professional life coaching and spiritual coaching
• Couples Counseling 
• Family Counseling
• Group Therapy
• Parenting Support
• Adolescent and Adult At-Risk Counseling
• ADHD life skills 
  • executive functioning issues 
  • making mindful decisions
• Stress Management & Mindfulness techniques
• Diabetes mindfulness, meditations, and stress management techniques
• Chronic illness strategies and coping skills
• Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)

Your Mind/Body Connection!!, "Learn to notice where your tension is in your body and how to breathe through it" Understand you mind/body connection to stress and how you can control it and your destiny Learn new coping skills & the power of Positive Thinking (Instill new positive core beliefs)

• Meditation, breathing, EFT/Tapping, and visualization training
• Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) Sensory Breathing -cleansing trauma, triggers, and stressors permanently
• Trauma Cleansing, Centering, Chakra Balancing and Energy Healing
• Nuero-linguiestic Programming (NLP) Change and Reframing Work
• Erickson's Hypnotherapy
• Solution-Focused therapy
• Addiction & Recovery
• Challenge mistaken beliefs & negative self-talk
• Create positive self-talk & positive perceptions
• Conflict Resolution & Change Work
• Acceptance Work

Therapeutical Approach:  I work with clients with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues as I provide services for anxiety, trauma, depression, and At-Risk Youth counseling to individuals, families, parenting support, couples counseling, and help during transitions. In a comfortable and supportive atmosphere, I offer an eclectic highly personalized holistic approach that meets my clients where they are at emotionally to help them focus on the positive to get them where they want to go. We will practice healthy coping skills to fill their personalized "Strength Kit" which can be used at home, school, or work to grow from. Clients can learn the power of positive thinking, cleansing breathing meditation, and how to reframe mistaken beliefs to positive self-talk. Since what one focuses on grows, clients will practice thinking and visualizing positively about their present and future when they're emotionally ready to.  With my eclectic approach I use solution-focused, mind/body connection energy healing, and cognitive behavior techniques to help adults, adolescents, and their families reframe irrational beliefs or negative self-talk that may have kept them stuck, to more positive self-talk and perceptions that can best help them grow and move forward. My clients can learn to move on from past traumas and stressors, not be triggered by current stressors, as they learn the positive intentions and feelings from communications they may have perceived from others as negative. Clients can find immediate relief from mental baggage and stress that may have been weighing them down as they learn to breathe through their stress in the areas of their body that is holding onto it. With these stress reducing techniques clients can become more resilient to stress related illnesses. Together we can practice coping skills that one can continue to use to enhance, balance their life, and help find inner peace. Working in these school areas as a Montgomery County Therapist:  Walter Johnson High School, Tilden Middle School, Wootton High School, Charles E Smith Day School, Julius West Middle School, Frost Middle School, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, McLean School, Georgetown Prep, Holy Cross, Rockville High School, Summit Hall Elementary School, Neelsville Middle School, Beverly Farm Elementary School, Rockville therapy, Bethesda therapy Psycho-educational and Therapuetic Group Themes:

• Themes of my experiential groups have included: stress management,meditation and mindfulness; mind/body connection cleansing breathing work, progressive relaxation,guided imagery and visualization, EFT/Tapping;perception is everything and how to make yours positive, do you have an internal locus of control?, the power of positive thinking, anger management;mistaken beliefs and challenging one's irrational perceptions; healthy independent living; creating your personalized "Strength Kit" and Authentically U Vision Board, how to change negative self-talk to positive self-talk with daily affirmations and/or Vision Boards, journaling-5 minute sprint and/or re-writing your story; healthy-assertive communication and boundaries--how to develop trust, learn to empathize with self and others to gain insight and/or forgiveness; how to self-advocate; understanding other's positive intentions; NLP Change Work, and a myriad of other themes and techniques depending on what is needed for the clients.

"Is your perception helping you?, 
Perception is Everything; If you think you can, You Can!,
BREATHE, FOCUS, GROW.... 
Do you want to learn how to reframe your negative self-talk to positive?,
Your destiny is only a vision away; create your Vision Board & "Strength Kit,"
Learn how to connect with others and how to see their positive intentions,
What relaxation techniques could you learn to positively help you now?" 
- Marilyn Spenadel, MS, LCPC 

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought," ~ Buddha

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ~ George Eliot

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you," ~ Sri Ram & expressed by Viktor Frankl

"I've seen Holistic Mind/Body techniques I teach my cients to cope and cleanse toxic thoughts and feelings, which have been absorbed by the body, pulled out by their roots to activate ongoing healing.  This helps to create a healthy mind/body integration and wholeness when one's feelings of their past don't carry the same intensity and triggers that may have caused "dis-ease," addictions, anxiety, phobias, stress, and illness."

In your therapy you will learn what psychosomatic stress is, the red flags of it, how it's affected you, and ways to cope with it. You will practice easy and effective ways to empower yourself daily to become more resilient and to strengthen your emotional and physical wellness. 

Holistic Integrative Psychotherapy Specialty - Mind /Body Connection & Spiritual Awareness:

• I specialize in helping adolescents, adults, and families who want to learn how to manage their anxiety and let go of the lodged physical memory of trauma and experiences, both cognitively and somatically. Our body hears what our mind says and I spend time teaching clients about psychosomatic stress that starts with thoughts that manifest in the body. You will learn if your mistaken beliefs and cogntive distortions are keeping you stuck.  Then, we will work on getting you unstuck with self-compassion.  By learning to accept and validate your thoughts and feelings you can discover ways to let go of what’s not helping you.  The sessions are very experiential as: 
• I bring my teachings from workshops at a local university to help empower clients to incorporate skills and a healthier perception into their lives. You can learn to become more mindfully present and aware of triggered feelings and what to do about them by learning how to mindfully meditate, practice EFT/Tapping technique, visualization exercises, and more.  By cognitively learning to become the source of your positive beliefs about yourself can help your feelings and actions too.  Becoming mind/body integrated will uplift your whole-self. 
• We practice techniques to create your Daily Empowerment "Resiliency Routine"© & "Strength Kit,"© to practice what you've learned.  You can Holistically integrate ways to reduce stress, create a stronger sense of self and purpose, and learn how to communicate in ways to mindfully connect to others and the bigger picture. 

Since the #1 reason people see doctors is stress related, clients also appreciate learning how to be proactive so their emotional stress doesn’t become physical issues.  I have been getting referrals from psychiatrists to help their patients who don’t seem to respond well to psychotropic meds or want to learn effective tools they can use daily to help. 

In your therapy you will learn what psychosomatic stress is, the red flags of it, how it's affected you, and ways to cope with it. You will practice easy and effective ways to empower yourself daily to become more resilient and to strengthen your emotional and physical wellness.  

Helpful techniques, Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) & Breath-Work helps with:

• Have you ever wondered if therapy and deep breathing could help you become unstuck, let go of suppressed feelings, able to move on and to become free of the tightness in your head, throat, or stomach that you may feel when you are stressed?
• The Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT), one technique that I teach clients works well for stuck emotions from grief, need for control, bullying, insecurities, anger issues, and wanting to move on. Any emotions that are deeply rooted from one’s childhood, of how one felt they were treated that is keeping them from moving forward, can be released. It even helps with emotions or experiences from one’s ancestors that people have taken on that they want to let go of.  
• Some see me because their stuck feelings and energy has lead to having very uncomfortable thougths, feelings, and behaviors. Such as, experiencing panic attacks, phobias, sleep issues, addictions, anxieties, or reoccurring relationship issues that AIT greatly helps with.  An issue only has to be worked on once to let go of it's intensity and to unblock the energy center associated with it.  
• AIT works by first cleansing the energy center associated with the issue causing the symptoms. Then, with this breakthrough therapy new core beliefs that affect the mind-body connection can be instilled, resulting in a shift that opens positive energy for holistic wellness, insight, and ongoing growth. 
• Click Here To Read My Published Article on Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)  Learn the process and ongoing profound benefits reported from using AIT. This published article explains the benefits and process of learning and using AIT to shift one's perception and energy concerning mind/body connections to be more positive. Postive and negative experiences, thoughts, and feelings you have taken on can become lodged inside of us.  The negative Issues and energy concerning events, experiences, traumas, and triggers can be shifted through our energy centers, Chakras, to encourage healing.  This is important since stuck energy, stress, and triggers can cause anxiety, addictions, increased emotional or physical illnesses, phobias, panic attacks, and other stress related disorders.  Using AIT can help one pull the negative feelings out by their roots to help one become unstuck and able to move on in a healthier way.  Please see the letter testimonials clients and therapists have written about their experiences, and continued energy shifting, with learning this very effective technique that somatically helps transform lives and relationships.

• Come Learn Awareness, Healing, and Resiliency techniques to help your mind/body and spiritual connection to stress and how it has affected your moods, emotional stablility, and/or physical illness.  Becoming aware of where your stress is inside will promote healing and wellness as you learn to breathe it away and process the insight you will gain about your past and current issues possibly keeping you stuck.

• Are you looking to find ways to reduce your mind/body connection to stress, become more resilient, or move in a new direction?  As a holistic, solution-focused therapist and life coach I specialize in helping adults and adolescents learn how to gain insight and coping skills.  While we can't change difficult situations of the past, we can work together to understanding your mind/body connection to any trauma or stress and then learn to cleanse it from your body effectively and easily.  By practicing energy healing techniques, you will learn to let go of long-standing feelings and triggers that may be holding you back.  You can learn to re-write your story and mindfully live your dreams as your Authentic-Self.

• I counsel individuals, couples, and families having anxiety, depression, dual-diagnosis, self-esteem, relationship/communication & transitional difficulties.  I teach Stress Management, Mindfulness, Meditation styles and techniques, Mind/Body integration, cleansing breath-work, instilling positve core beliefs, EFT/Tapping, guided imagery, NLP, and coping skills.  With Solution-Focused, Gestalt, Advanced Integrative Therapy and Existential techniques that best suit you, you can learn to accept your emotions, challenge your mistaken beliefs, understand where they came from, and learn to be the source of your positive self-talk and new core beliefs.

• You can learn how to use Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT) breath and energy work to help empower you.  Please read my published article on the process and benefits of learning this life changing technique to enhance your energy, self-awareness, self-worth, interpersonal relationships, peace, strength, and living as your empowered authentic-self.
• You can learn cognitive and somatic techniques to accept and then cleanse your stress within, about a particular incident, stressor, negative feeling, or trigger lodged inside.  You can become aware of how your body hears what your minds says and what to do to become cleansed of these thoughts and feelings that are hurting you.  You can cleanse any anquish, breathe it away through your energy centers, and move into a positive direction.  Then, we can work on you bringing in, and instilling new positive core beliefs to strengthen your emotions and body to become resilient.  Please see the testimonials here of how others have healed themselves of their distructive stress within and then brought in positive thoughts, feelings, and energy.   I've experienced my approach helping others learn to heal from the inside out as they have practiced their daily proactive "Resiliency Routine"(C) to gain ongoing insight and growth. 

Call for more information
Marilyn's ONGOING WELLNESS & RESILIENCY WORKSHOPS AND TALKS
Holistic Wellness Workshops are intended to help empower attendees with helpful skills to
enhance mind/body and "spiritual-if asked about" wellness while gaining the positive ability to thrive.