Mary McCrystal

Mary is a depth psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist. She is also a group facilitator, teacher, author, and artist. Mary received her master’s and doctorate degrees from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara CA. She has worked with the juvenile justice system and school systems treating at-risk teens, she has been a lead clinician and clinical supervisor treating children and families with trauma in community mental health settings. In addition, Mary has had a clinical private practice in CA since 2010 where she treats C-PTSD, PTSD, anxiety and depression in children, couples and adults. She has a holistic approach to therapy focusing on the whole person, mind, body and spirit. For more than two decades she has been exploring and researching ways to heal emotional pain and suffering using integrated modalities. She genuinely enjoys working people who are ready to experience healed and healthy relationships with Self and with others. Mary believes this begins with an inner journey to truly understand the Self.

Mary uses an interdisciplinary approach when working with clients. When beginning therapy, she uses essential cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions. This helps a person build tools and strategies to regulate feelings and thoughts. As a psychodynamic trained depth psychologist, she is always looking for what is trying to emerge in consciousness either through dreams, or the way a person shares their story. This way of listening and tending the field often helps her build rapport quickly. Building a sense of trust and presence is what helps people dive into deeper parts of themselves and the therapy. Along with CBT and depth psychology, she incorporates attachment theory, somatic psychology, and specialized training in expressive art, mindfulness and visualization. When working with children who have experienced trauma she uses multimodal play therapy techniques, primarily expressive art and Sandplay to assist children in releasing psychic and somatic experiences of trauma.