Individual Therapy

Through individual therapy using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we can explore these early life experiences to help get to the root of your emotional difficulties or mental health disorder. Once we know your triggers, I can help you create new behaviors and skills to improve your mental health and your relationships.

Individual therapy sessions are offered at my office in Westlake Village, California, or through telehealth. We typically meet once a week, though the frequency of your session varies depending on your individual needs.

Take the First Step Towards Change:
Many clients choose to address stress through therapy, where we work directly on the relational patterns driving emotional overload.

Contact Marina Edelman, LMFT, today for a confidential consultation or Book an Appointment. For new clients, you may need to answer a few forms so we can assist you better.

Q: What is individual therapy and how does it work?
A: It is a one-on-one relationship between a client and a licensed therapist, built around a single purpose: helping you understand yourself more deeply, process what has been difficult, and build a genuinely better relationship with your own inner life. It works through the consistent, focused attention of a skilled clinician who is trained to hear not just what you say but what is underneath it — the patterns, the histories, the beliefs, and the emotional experiences that are shaping how you think, feel, and move through the world. Sessions are typically fifty minutes, held weekly, and guided by your goals and what you bring into the room. In my practice, individual therapy is never passive. It is an active, collaborative process in which you are not simply heard but genuinely helped — with direct feedback, practical tools, and a clear sense of direction from the very first session.

Q: How do I know if individual therapy is right for me?
A: If something in your life — your mood, your relationships, your sense of yourself, your ability to function — feels harder than it should, and your own efforts to address it have not produced the relief or change you were hoping for, individual therapy is worth pursuing. You do not need to be in crisis. You do not need a formal diagnosis. You do not need to have experienced something dramatic or traumatic enough to justify taking up a therapist’s time. In my clinical experience, the people who benefit most from individual therapy are often the ones who come in not because everything has collapsed but because something quieter is consistently getting in the way — and they are finally ready to understand what it is. If you are wondering whether therapy is right for you, that question alone is usually answer enough.

Q: What issues can individual therapy help with?
A: Our individual therapy is effective across an extraordinarily broad range of presentations — which is part of what makes it one of the most versatile clinical tools available. In my practice, I work with anxiety and depression, trauma and PTSD, grief and loss, life transitions, relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, chronic stress and burnout, identity questions, and the persistent patterns of thought and behavior that keep producing outcomes a person doesn’t want. I also work with clients who don’t carry a specific diagnosis but who have a clear and honest sense that they are not living as fully, as freely, or as authentically as they want to be. That is more than sufficient reason to come in — and it is some of the most meaningful work I do.

Q: What can I expect during an individual therapy session?
A: The first thing you can expect is to be received without judgment — whatever you bring, however long you have been carrying it, and regardless of how much or how little you are ready to share at the outset. In the early sessions, we focus on understanding your history, your goals, and what has brought you to therapy at this particular moment in your life. From there, sessions are collaborative and purposeful — guided by what you are working on, with enough structure to create genuine progress and enough flexibility to follow what is most alive and important in the room. You will not simply be listened to and reflected back at. In my practice, you will receive direct observations, honest feedback, and concrete tools to work with between sessions. Therapy should feel like something is actually happening — and from the very first session, my goal is that it does.

Q: How long does it typically take to see results in individual therapy?
A: This is one of the most important questions to answer honestly — because unrealistic expectations in either direction can undermine the work before it has a chance to take hold. For many clients, something meaningful shifts within the first four to eight sessions — a new way of understanding a pattern, a reduction in the intensity of symptoms, or a concrete skill that is already making daily life more manageable. Deeper change — the kind that rewires longstanding patterns, resolves the roots of chronic anxiety or depression, or rebuilds a relationship with the self that has been damaged over years — takes longer, and it takes consistency. What I can tell you from over two decades of clinical work is that the clients who see the most lasting results are almost always the ones who stay with the process long enough for insight to become genuine change — not just understanding, but a fundamentally different way of living. That timeline is different for everyone. What stays constant is the commitment to getting there.