not accepting new clients in 2024
washington DC

Holistic IFS Therapy

for highly sensitive millennials on their journey to wellness and belonging

The Liminal Space

A liminal space is the time between ‘what was’ and ‘what's next’
It is a place of transition
a season of questions and reflection
what was

You might be feeling...

  • Overwhelmed with sensations and emotions
  • Perpetually drained, unsettled, and mentally foggy
  • Hopeless, with a deep sadness and despair
  • Unable to enjoy life, not even the good things 
  • Afraid and ashamed of showing up as your true self
What's next

You want to experience...

  • More clarity and self-awareness all around
  • Deeper compassion for yourself and others
  • Firmer boundaries that protect your sensitivity
  • Freedom to be yourself around the people you love
  • A return to an inner knowing as your compass
Therapy can be the liminal space where you transform 'what was' into 'what's next'.
Mara Gutierrez
ABOUT ME

Hi! I’m Mara.

I help people look within and find their way back to their wise, centered, grounded Self. Using feelings as feedback, we hold space for intense emotions and explore painful wounds, maladaptive behaviors, and limiting beliefs inflicted by those wounds.

I don’t prescribe to tips and tricks looking to minimize or ignore our pain as I believe we can never be free from anything we desperately avoid. Instead, I strive to guide my clients to pay attention and listen to what the discomfort might be trying to tell us. I am committed to my own Self-discovery because I know the more inner work I do, the better I am at guiding others to do the same.

I take a holistic approach to healing, exploring trauma and emotions in a traditional talk therapy setting, while also incorporating somatic modalities like breathwork to bridge the mind-body connection. My goal is for our time together to feel as an exhale, for me to be a catalyst for your emotional risk-taking, while guiding you to heal your relationship with yourself.

THE HEALING EXHALE

Cultivating Curiosity

We fuse modern psychotherapy frameworks and ancient healing modalities in our practice. If you are into the specifics, here are the three pillars The Healing Exhale is rooted in: 

IFS therapy in a dedicated and intententional container, exploring and befriending all parts coexisting within yourself

Somatic modalities like breathwork as tools to deeply connect to your body, access a sense of safety, and cultivate Self energy

Exploration of the connections in your life learning how to better relate to your loved ones and the communities you’re a part of

Working Together

I do my best work with clients who align with my values, personality, and therapeutic style. Goodness of fit often determines a lot of how the therapeutic process unfolds. That’s why it’s important to make sure we are a great fit before we begin working together.

We might be a good fit if

  • You’re a highly sensitive, empathetic human wanting to explore the power of that sensitivity
  • You consider yourself a curious person with a thirst for knowledge and understanding
  • You care about the people around you, the communities you are a part of, and our planet
  • You are committed to your growth and can embrace some of the discomfort that comes with it.
  • You are eager to invest 1-2 hours every week for further exploration/practice outside of sessions.

We might not be a good fit if

  • You are in the midst of a crisis and need a higher level of care right now ( call 1-888-793-4357 if so)
  • You are looking for top-down, highly analytical approaches to therapy (CBT, DBT, ACT, etc)
  • You are looking for psychedelics. I offer preparation and integration work only, I do not offer dosing sessions 
  • You need ongoing support from your therapist outside of sessions (regular emails, texts, phone calls, etc)
  • You worship Andrew Tate, don’t “believe” in vaccines, or were near the US Capitol wearing a maga hat on 1/6/21  : )
If, after reviewing the checklist above, you believe we’d be a good match, please fill out my contact form to request a free consultation.