Marla Monk
Relationship-focused social worker
LCSW, LISW-CP South Carolina
- Experience
- 5 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Stress, Anxiety, Relationship, Trauma and abuse
- Approaches
- Gottman Method, Client-Centered Therapy
- Languages
- English
About Marla
Marla Monk is a licensed clinical social worker who uses relationship-focused methods to help people navigate stress and life transitions. She brings a calm, practical style to sessions and draws on approaches that focus on emotions, behavior, and communication.
Background and approach
Marla works from South Carolina and conducts therapy in English. Marla combines the Gottman Method with client-centered care to help people improve communication and rebuild connection.
She also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and develop concrete coping skills. In sessions she helps people practice new ways of talking and listening so problems feel more manageable.
Her background includes work with trauma, grief, and domestic violence. Marla helps people who have faced sexual assault, military-related stress, caregiving strain, or difficult family patterns.
She also supports those handling parenting challenges, divorce and separation, and intimacy-related concerns. Marla holds clinical social work licenses in California and South Carolina: Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Licensed Independent Social Worker with Clinical Practice designation (LISW-CP).
She has around five years of clinical experience in direct mental health services in settings that involve prevention and education as well as advocacy. In a session people can expect a conversational, goal-focused approach that mixes listening with practical tools.
Marla uses evidence-informed methods like CBT and Emotionally-Focused Therapy to target anxiety, depression, and relationship struggles. She tailors strategies to each person’s needs and helps set small, clear steps to move forward.
How therapeutic approaches work online
Gottman Method work focuses on improving communication and reducing conflict in close relationships. Online sessions using Gottman-informed exercises can include guided conversations, skill practice, and tools to rebuild connection and reduce recurring arguments.Client-Centered Therapy centers the person’s experience and priorities. In virtual sessions this looks like attentive listening, reflection, and helping clients set goals that feel meaningful to them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, breaks down patterns of thought and behavior and builds practical coping skills for anxiety, depression, and stress. Online CBT sessions often include brief exercises and homework people can use between meetings.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss your goals and preferences, then suggest one or a mix of methods to try. Goals and techniques are reviewed together so adjustments are made based on what helps most.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for face-to-face work and relationship exercises, phone calls can fit a break at work or require less bandwidth, and chat or messaging can support brief check-ins or skill reminders. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and make consistent progress with fewer scheduling barriers.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
5+ years
Licensed in
California, South Carolina, Virginia
Languages
English