About Mario Uribe…

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)

In my work with couples and individual adults, I strive to compassionately and non-judgmentally accompany others toward the peace and healing they desire.

As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, (LMFT) my education, training and experience are especially suited toward helping couples heal from relationship fractures—lingering wounds that leave spouses feeling the pain of disconnection, sometimes to the point of isolation, and even despair.

Whether working in the context of marriage counseling or individual counseling, and whether working in a faith-based or secular context, my therapeutic approach is always relational. My background and training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) provides a research-validated methodology that greatly emphasizes the human person’s need for attachment and connection… universal human needs that might otherwise equate to, well… love.

Couples Counseling

Do you often feel like a “nag,” or that you “can’t get through” to your partner—are you perpetually trying “reach” him/her, but are angry, sad or frustrated at your inability to connect?  Or perhaps you find yourself instead distancing from your partner, avoiding conflict in order to avoid her/his anger and resentment, only to find yourself “walking on eggshells.”  You feel the pain of disconnection with the person you love, and you feel stuck; perhaps it even feels hopeless at times. If only you could re-discover the bond that somehow still exists beneath the rubble of fighting, avoiding and blaming.  Your heart yearns for this connection, but despite your efforts, you feel yourselves drifting apart.  You feel you are losing the one you love, and it hurts so much.

If this describes what is happening between you and your partner, you are certainly not alone.  It may be that within your relationship you are suffering from a long-standing, familiar pattern of conflict that has left you feeling isolated in your pain and distanced from the one you love.  It may well be that you do not even know or understand why or how this painful disconnect—this invisible monster that gets between you—is happening.  For others, it may more immediately relate to the intense pain of infidelity, compulsive, problematic sexual behaviors, or other addictions, mental illness, neurological factors, or other life-stressors.

Mario’s specialized training and experience in Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) provides an experiential approach in working with couples–one that seeks to restore marriages by building strong, enduring spousal connection. 

Individual Counseling

Much of Mario’s clinical experience involves helping adult individual clients with mood and anxiety-related disturbances, AD/HD, relationship problems, life adjustments, problematic sexual behaviors and other compulsive behaviors.  As indicated, Mario considers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, (CBT) and other techniques/modalities to augment his relational approach to treatment. Sometimes, new clients describe difficulties that seem “chronic” in nature, meaning they have been problematic for years perhaps, possibly worsening over time.  Other times, new clients are concerned with more immediate problems that can make daily functioning very difficult.  In either case, his approach is to listen to you, assess your needs, and collaborate with you on the best way toward healing.

Special Needs Parents

As a father of a child with special needs, Mario is intimately familiar with the kind of challenges faced by parents within such families.  He works with couples and single parents who struggle to cope with their own and their children’s neurological challenges (such as ADHD and Autism) and other developmental and behavioral challenges. In so doing, Mario assess clients’ needs from a parent, couple and family perspective; rather than to exclusively focus therapy on the individual child with special needs, he assists parents in fortifying their couples (or other) relationship(s), honing parenting skills, and seeing to the well-being of the family as a whole.

Faith-Based Work

Mario provides both secular and faith-based therapeutic approaches, depending on the diverse beliefs, needs and preferences of the clients he serves. A committed Christian, Mario offers an ecumenically inclusive faith-based integration of psychological theory and technique with Christian spiritual principles for clients who prefer a faith-informed approach. Mario is not a pastoral counselor. For clients not preferring or requiring a faith-informed approach, he works within a secular context. In respecting the individuality of his clients, he strives to adapt his approach according to their needs and preferences, respecting the beliefs and dignity of all he serves.

Notables About Mario Uribe

Mario attained his BA degree from St. Mary’s University, Texas, and his MS in Clinical Counseling (Marriage and Family Therapy) from Cal State University, Long Beach (CA).  He has completed advanced Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) training to include Externship as well as all levels of EFT core skills training.  Mr. Uribe previously served as Board of Directors Vice President for the Austin Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy (2019).  He is a certified Positive Discipline Educator, and in addition to his clinically-oriented education, his past professional experience extends to corporate consultant and management work in the area of Employee Relations.