Mariel Farhi

Therapist at Bethesda Counseling Services

I’m Mariel. I grew up in Upstate New York, the youngest child in an intellectually alive, culturally diverse, and large blended family full of healers of all stripes. My family background and early life experiences instilled an endless curiosity in me around questions of what makes relationships work and how people can relate to each other, and live their own lives, most authentically and meaningfully. These questions led me through undergraduate studies in Philosophy to graduate studies in Marriage and Family Therapy.

I believe that life is a journey full of surprises, with many points for reflection, growth, and healing along the way. I view therapy as a meeting of fellow-travelers along this journey. We will walk together a while and through our conversations create a warm, genuine and engaged space where you can be curious, explore, and uncover insights that are already within you.

My goal is to help you move through whatever it is you are facing with more clarity, confidence, relief and greater insight into your past, present, and future. I work with individuals 13 and older dealing with a variety of life challenges including but not limited to anxiety, depression, trauma, issues of self-esteem and self-compassion, and existential issues. I also work with couples and folks in other types of relationship constellations working through challenges with communication, trust, pre-marital issues, navigating intercultural and interfaith issues, and stressors that come from outside of the relationship. I work through a systemically-oriented, culturally sensitive and LGBTQ+ affirming, trauma-informed lens to hold all aspects of experience that may be impacting you. Above all else, I prioritize warmth, authenticity and humor in my style, and hope to make you as comfortable as possible in our work together. Since I firmly believe that therapy should be as unique as the client is, I use a blend of therapeutic approaches to tailor our work together to your needs. These include psychodynamic, narrative, experiential, and emotionally-focused therapy. I have also completed training in Gottman Couples Therapy (Level 1) and am a certified facilitator of the PREPARE/ENRICH program.

When I’m not in the therapy room, I enjoy being in nature, reading, yoga, spending time with my loved ones, going on road trips even when it would probably be easier to fly, and spoiling my two cats.