Marissa Katz Bellani

Marissa Katz Bellani is an MA, Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in Hawaii with eight years of experience. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship and intimacy concerns, addictions, and life transitions. Sessions are conducted in English and she accepts international clients. She lists life purpose among her areas of focus and helps people who feel stuck or unsure about next steps in work or life.

Marissa blends conversational counseling with creative approaches. She uses Client-Centered Therapy to follow each person's perspective and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify patterns that keep problems going. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy appears in her work as well, helping people notice what matters most and take small actions toward those values.

She draws on training that included music therapy and expressive arts during graduate study, and she brings that background into sessions for people who want a more experiential way to process feelings. Marissa aims for straightforward sessions where goals are clear and practical strategies are tried between meetings.

People contact her when they feel overwhelmed by life changes, coping with chronic illness or caregiving stress, struggling with attachment or codependency, or managing issues related to identity and intimacy. She also lists work around family of origin concerns, communication problems, and end-of-life topics.

Her approach mixes talking and active exercises. Expect a collaborative tone: you describe what matters, she suggests ways to test new habits, and together you review what helps most. If you want to explore life purpose or get unstuck, she frames the work as step-by-step problem solving and values-based planning.

Therapeutic approaches and doing work online

Marissa uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help people clarify what matters to them and take small, value-driven steps. ACT focuses on noticing thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them and then choosing actions that align with personal values.

She also draws on Client-Centered Therapy, which emphasizes listening closely to a person's experience and shaping sessions around their insights and priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) appears in her work as a tool to identify thought and behavior patterns and try practical experiments to change them.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Marissa treats approach selection as collaborative: she and the client review what feels useful, try methods in session, and adjust based on what produces helpful change. Goals, preferences, and practical needs guide those choices.

The original biography notes online therapy for Hawaii clients, so please confirm current session options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and remove travel time. When expressive or music-based activities are desired, those elements can be adapted for remote sessions so creative methods remain part of the work.