Click here to contact us for a personal and complimentary consultation. We can also provide a referral to other licensed health professionals. For additional referrals, consult the following information.

Our Colleagues

Marriage & Family Therapists (MFTs)

There are hundreds of licensed Marriage & Family Therapists (MFTs) in Marin County, California, and thousands more throughout the United States and elsewhere in the world. Although training and experience varies by therapist and requirements for licensure vary by state and country, generally MFTs help people to have better relationships. They provide individual as well as couples, family, and child therapy, among others.

In Marin County, California, you can search the Marin CAMFT website for MFTs with various areas of interest such as parenting, depression, or anxiety.

For all of California, use the Therapist Finder at CAMFT, the state association for MFTs.

A similar feature listing its members in the U.S. and throughout the world is provided by the AAMFT at http://www.aamft.org/therapistlocator/index.htm.

Other resources can be found on our resource page.

Michael Mesmer, MFT ~ Dir., Therapy Alternatives

Alternative Therapy

As a therapist, I offer a holistic approach when exploring with people the kind of issues that bring them to therapy. This perspective recognizes that work, diet, lifestyle and spiritual practice, as well as thoughts and feelings, can play a role in healing our body, mind and spirit and in building healthy relationships and satisfying lives. Working holistically also helps us to recognize and develop our strengths and resources.

Holistic psychotherapy can help us to explore and accept who we (and others) are as well as change in the ways that we want to. Traditional as well as alternative methods of psychotherapy can help us to return to a feeling of satisfaction and excitement about our lives.

I have worked with adults, couples, families, teens and children who improved their self-esteem, managed their anxiety and fear, won over their depression, or ended family violence ~ and enhanced the quality of their lives.

The resilience of the human spirit is inspiring to experience!

• Co-director / group leader, Building Better Families, Inc. (2003 - present)
• Staff Clinician, Family Service Agency of Marin (2001-2002)
• Deputy Coroner, Marin County, CA (2001)
• Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (CA) Lic. 36859 (2000 - present)
• Workshop leader: "Talking Drum" (1999 - 2001)
• Assistant, Hakomi Comprehensive Training (1999-2000)
• Graduate, Hakomi Comprehensive Training (1997-1998)
• Certified Crisis Management / Suicide Prevention (1996)
• Certified Grief Counselor (1995)
• MA Counseling Psychology ~ JFK University (1995)
• Workshop leader: "Acting for Therapists", AHP Annual Conference (1991)
• Outdoor Events Team Leader ~ Youth At Risk, Bridgeport, CT (1983) & New York, NY (1984)
• Teen Workshop Leader: CETA Program, Patterson, NJ (1975)
• BA Psychology/Theater: Fairleigh Dickinson University (1974)
• Draft Counselor: Fairleigh Dickinson University (1972-73)

• Humanistic Web Design (click here)
• Music: guitar, bass, percussion (click here or here [large file])
• Hiking (in Marin County, California, try this site: www.marintrails.com)
• Chess & Go (usually online at Yahoo)

Veronika Noble, MA ~ MFT Intern; Registered Addictions Specialist Intern

To quote the words of many, I have a dream. Actually many dreams. And I bet you do too!

The beauty in our day and age is that our dreams can in fact be realized. In my practice I strive towards growing, achieving and maintaining. This is done by balancing the parts of one's self. This includes external factors such as relationships, employment, and recreation, and its intermingling with our internal aspects such as pleasure, pain, fear and excitement.

Often what is required is a rebalancing of self leading to what I call matchpoint. Simply put, when our outsides, (external factors) and our insides, (internal aspects) match with our hopes and goals, we are at matchpoint. Along the way to matchpoint there are often many detours and roadblocks, (in other words, conflicts between our internals and our externals, our ins and our outs), which can contribute to our choosing to either give up, or to perform alternative actions. Choosing alternative actions, or discovering the truth for oneself will lead to the acquiring or revising of hopes and goals and it certainly paves the way to continued fulfilled living, thus leading to the reality of our dreams.

I am particularly interested in working with adolescents and their families and with issues of divorce, co-parenting, anger management, and life recovery.

MaryAnn Orsary, MA ~ MFT Intern

I provide caring individual and couples counseling. My style is engaged, genuine and heartfelt. I have a strong belief in my clients’ drive toward health and wholeness. I am slow to view symptoms as pathological, and prefer to help clients discover what symptoms have to show them so they can regain perspective and balance.

I like to help clients gain self esteem, find their voice, and feel more confident about themselves. We all need help sometimes dealing with the complexity of life transitions, including divorce, sending our children off to college, grieving the loss of a loved one.

I spent several years at the Center for Attitudinal Healing helping clients through their grief process, as well as those with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. I have helped clients with many experiences and issues, including reducing stress, finding a sense of direction, recovering from cult experiences, and processing adoption issues.

We are always eager to meet people to discuss therapy as well as mutual interests. Whether you are interested in finding out if one of us is the right therapist for you or just saying hello, please feel free to contact us by e-mail at info@therapyalternatives.org or by telephone at (415) 601-7497. We'll try to respond as soon as we can.

Be well!