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Mary Lou Macarius is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who specializes in treating anxiety, depression, ADHD, behavioral issues, grief, parenting issues, school issues, stress, women's issues, and child therapy. She has more than 20 years of experience, working at institutions such as the Pacific Lutheran University Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic and Good Samaritan Behavioral Health Care Center, as well as in public schools serving students K-12th grade, working independently in Comfort Counseling. She also has experience serving individuals from six years old to 65 years old from her time at the Renton Counseling Center. She is a clinical member of The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Mary Lou received a Bachelor of Social Work from Eastern Washington University and a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pacific Lutheran University. She utilizes multiple treatment approaches including, but not limited to, solution-focused therapy, narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and structural family therapy. Mary Lou's dominant practicing theories are those of structural family therapy, which focuses on the ways in which families function and the changes that need to be made in the family structure to help them function more effectively, and solution-focused theory, which looks at the solutions that the client brings to therapy for coping with problems and builds on the client’s successes. She also likes to use some narrative therapy, which is focused on changing the way that you look at your life or problems.

Mary Lou is a trauma survivor and comes from an immigrant family, both of which influence the work that she does on a day-to-day basis. This, along with her clinical experience, allows her to support and understand her clients in unique ways.