Marcia Pontoni, LCSW

Marcia Pontoni is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in California with 25 years of experience. She offers compassionate, down-to-earth support for people dealing with relationship stress, grief, anxiety, depression, and other life changes. Marcia focuses on respectful, nonjudgmental care and tailors conversations and plans to each person's situation.

Marcia blends Client-Centered Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness techniques. In sessions she helps people notice unhelpful thinking, practice new coping strategies, and build more balanced daily habits. Work often centers on improving communication, managing emotions, and coping with loss or difficult transitions.

She has supported people facing intimacy concerns, jealousy, infidelity, and boundary problems, along with struggles related to addiction, trauma, and family of origin issues. Marcia also brings experience with aging and serious illness topics such as cancer and hospice and end-of-life counseling.

Sessions are framed around the client’s goals and paced to fit real life. Marcia aims to help people feel heard, develop practical tools, and take gradual steps toward change. She encourages honest conversation and collaborative planning.

To begin, clients complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule sessions based on the therapist’s availability. Marcia works primarily by phone and video and adjusts timing when needed to accommodate people’s schedules.

How therapy approaches translate to online care

Client-Centered Therapy is focused on listening and responding to what matters most to the client. The therapist follows the client’s lead, offers empathic feedback, and helps set goals that feel realistic. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going and teaches practical exercises to change them, which can help with anxiety, depression, and relationship patterns.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Together they decide how to blend approaches and which techniques to try first, and they revisit the plan as work progresses.

Marcia works primarily by phone and video, so confirm current session options when you book. Online sessions can make it easier to fit appointments into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. They also let people use techniques learned in session right away in their daily routine. If specific timing or format matters, discuss it during the matching and scheduling steps so sessions match practical needs.