Elizabeth Skirbe

Hello and welcome—I’m so glad you’re here. I know firsthand, through both lived and clinical experience, how difficult the psychotherapy process can be. I also know how freeing and rewarding life can feel through this work.

I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist who works with individuals and couples, and I am deeply curious about people, relationships, and what shapes the way we think, feel, and connect. I am intently curious about getting to know you, and I provide highly individualized care based on your unique strengths and challenges while integrating evidence-based approaches to support long-lasting change.

My approach is rooted in a psychodynamic lens, connecting past experiences to present-day patterns that might be keeping us stuck in frustrating ways. Understanding why we do what we do allows us to consider alternatives and can surprisingly move us toward healing and growth quite naturally. I believe we are inherently motivated toward health and resilience. From this perspective, symptoms are understood as meaningful adaptations rather than pathologies, and therapy becomes a place where old beliefs can be gently tested and revised in the presence of a safe, supportive relationship. My work is also informed by Internal Family Systems which offers a compassionate framework for understanding the different “parts” of ourselves—protective parts, wounded parts, and our core Self—and how these “parts” influence emotions, behaviors, and relationships. For individuals, IFS supports greater self-compassion, emotional regulation, and inner clarity. Regardless of what kind of framework we use, I believe therapy is most meaningful when it feels safe, warm, and relational, and I care deeply about creating an empathic and well-attuned space where clients feel supported in showing up authentically and exploring their inner world. I feel so fortunate to be able to pursue this work in life and I do so with deep respect for the courage and strength it requires from my clients.

I am passionate about helping couples better understand themselves, each other, and the communication patterns that may be creating distance or conflict in their relationship. I provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where partners can slow down, feel heard, and begin to reconnect. In couples work, IFS supports partners in recognizing how their internal worlds interact, reducing reactivity and fostering greater empathy and emotional safety. EFT is a way of deconstructing the patterns to understand that the pattern can change without making either partner "right or wrong" and can allow each person to have a little more space and time to decide if they want to react differently. Regardless of what model we might use, together we will work to slow things down, deepen understanding, and move out of reactive patterns and toward more secure, meaningful, and fulfilling connections.

I earned my Master’s degree in Psychology from Dominican University of California in San Rafael and currently practice as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist under clinical supervision.

I am a lifelong learner and feel incredibly grateful to be one of the rare people who truly loves what they do. I feel honored to share space with my clients and to witness their pain, growth and resilience. Outside of the therapy room, I enjoy cooking, traveling, spending time with my family and friends, and walking my dog in beautiful Marin.