Psychotherapy, Santa Monica, CA 90403 & Telehealth in California

Psychotherapy for
children, teenagers
and families

Focused care for children, teenagers, and families, including: adolescent challenges, family conflict, and emotional attunement through play in children. Also working with young adults and couples. In person in Santa Monica and via telehealth throughout California.

Request a Free Consultation About Marcella

Marcella Stanley, AMFT #155995 Associate Marriage & Family Therapist Santa Monica, CA 90403 | Telehealth Statewide

Who I Work With

Adolescents

I work with teenagers, working primarily with teenage girls, building confidence, navigating friendship challenges, social pressure, anxiety, identity, and risk behaviors. Working with adolescents requires earning trust before anything else. I focus on forming a genuine, natural therapeutic relationship, one where a teenager actually wants to show up, and meeting them with both patience and honest engagement.

Children

Working with young children is a core focus of my practice. Through play therapy and sand tray therapy, areas where I have developed extensive clinical experience, children find a safe, expressive space to process big feelings in ways that are natural, age-appropriate, and evidence-based. I meet children where they are at, following their lead and building a relationship grounded in trust and warmth.

Families

Family therapy is a defining focus of my work. Inherent to working with children and teenagers is the family system around them, and sometimes bringing that into the room is the missing piece of the puzzle to healing. I work with families of teenagers, including those navigating a child's risk behaviors, as well as adult families seeking to improve communication, understand relational patterns, and rebuild connection at home.

Young Adults & Couples

Supporting young adults navigating transitions, identity, and relationships, and couples seeking to improve communication, deepen understanding, and grow together.

Types of Therapy Offered

Play
Therapy

Play is a child's first language, the way they make sense of their world long before words are enough. A nondirective, evidence-based approach, play therapy gives children the space to express, explore, and heal using the tools most natural to them: toys, art, and imaginative play.

Sandplay
Therapy

A non-verbal, expressive approach for all ages. Using a tray of sand and miniature figures, clients create scenes that reflect their inner world in ways that words often cannot, and in doing so, opens a path toward deeper self-understanding and awareness.

Family
Therapy

When a family is hurting, the most powerful thing you can do is get everyone in the room. Family therapy targets the patterns between people, the unspoken rules, the recurring arguments, the disconnection that builds over time. Having each person present means we can shift things in real time, together, rather than one piece at a time.

Psychodynamic
Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy asks the deeper question: where is this coming from? Early experiences and relational patterns shape how we feel and behave, often outside our awareness. By exploring what arises together, we build insight that does not just explain behavior, it changes it.

About Marcella

Here for change,
guided by compassion

Marcella Stanley is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist whose focus is work with children, adolescents, and families, with a unique background that spans the science of the mind and a genuine love of human connection. She holds three graduate degrees, in Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Marriage & Family Therapy, along with an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience with minors in Psychology and Studio Art. Her background in studio art is not incidental: it informs the creativity she brings to her clinical work, especially with children and adolescents. Marcella is also from the community she now serves, giving her a personal familiarity with the unique pressures and expectations that come with growing up in this area.

Marcella completed her Master's in Marriage & Family Therapy at USC, and her practicum training site at Maple Counseling Center, a rigorous, highly regarded community mental health training center in Beverly Hills. There, she spent two years specializing in work with children, adolescents, and families, developing the focused clinical experience that now defines her practice.

During that same period, Marcella also served as a therapist at Beverly Vista Middle School, where she worked with adolescents navigating a wide range of challenges, including academic stress, social difficulties and peer conflict, anxiety, depression, family transitions, behavioral concerns, and the everyday pressures of early adolescence. That experience deepened her understanding of teenagers in a real-world context and directly informs her specialty in working with this age group today.

Her work is client-centered, drawing on psychodynamic and family systems frameworks to help clients understand what is driving their patterns, and find real, lasting ways forward. With children, she incorporates play therapy and sand tray therapy, offering non-verbal, expressive pathways to healing that are natural, developmentally appropriate, and evidence-based. Informed by her background in studio art, she brings creativity into her work with children through art materials, expression, and play as meaningful therapeutic tools. She creates a warm, supportive space where clients feel genuinely seen and equipped for meaningful growth.

“I create a warm, supportive space where clients feel understood, empowered, and ready for meaningful change.”

Specialties

Teenage Girls
Children
Families
Teenagers
Young Adults
Anxiety
Depression
Self Esteem
Body Image
Peer Relationships
School Issues
Parenting
Risk Behaviors
Trauma
Client-Centered
Psychodynamic Therapy
Play Therapy
Sand Tray Therapy

My Approach

Client-centered
psychotherapy

Every modality I use is filtered through a client-centered lens, meaning I follow your pace, honor your individual needs, and adapt the work to fit who you are. There is no rigid formula, the work is shaped by you, not the other way around.

For Children

Play Therapy

Play therapy is the primary modality I use with younger children, and it is an area where I have developed extensive clinical experience. Children do not yet have the language to articulate what they are feeling, play is how they communicate, process, and make sense of the world around them.

The space includes a variety of toys, art materials, sand, and expressive tools. Through these, children externalize their inner world, and healing is enacted, not just talked about.

For All Ages

Sandplay Therapy

Sandplay therapy is a non-verbal, expressive approach available to clients of all ages. Using a tray of sand and a collection of miniature figures, clients create scenes that reflect their inner world in ways that words often cannot, and in doing so, opens a path toward deeper self-understanding and awareness.

This modality is especially powerful for those who find it difficult to access or articulate their experience directly. The sand tray becomes a container for feelings, memories, and patterns that can then be gently explored together.

For Families

Family Therapy

When families feel stuck, are talking in circles, not hearing each other, or repeating the same patterns, I think about it like a filter that needs to be changed. The communication is trying to flow, but something is blocking it. Family therapy helps identify what that blockage is.

Rather than focusing on who is right or wrong, we look at the system as a whole, the roles each person plays, the dynamics that have developed over time, and the ways everyone is both affected by and contributing to what is happening.

For Teens & Adults

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic therapy is rooted in exploration. It is based on the understanding that much of what drives our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors originates beneath the surface, in early experiences, relational patterns, and the stories we have internalized about ourselves and others.

In this work, we slow down and look inward together, building insight and self-awareness that leads to real, lasting change.

Fees & Location

Sessions are offered in person at the Santa Monica office and via telehealth throughout California. My practice is currently private pay and I do not accept insurance, though a superbill can be provided for potential out-of-network reimbursement.

$175

Per Session

Individual, family, or couples session.

Sliding scale available

A sliding scale means the session fee is adjusted based on your financial situation. Please reach out to discuss what works for you.

Santa Monica

In-Person Office

Located in Santa Monica, CA 90403. Telehealth available statewide in California.

Getting Started

Taking the first step can feel uncertain. Here is what the process looks like:

Reach Out

Fill out the contact form, call or text (323) 301-3886, or email marcellastanleymft@gmail.com. For a prompt reply, include what you are looking for and your general availability.

Free Consultation

We'll connect for a brief chat to see if we are a good fit.

Your First Session

If we move forward, we will schedule your first session and begin building a space that feels safe and genuinely yours.

Contact

Ready to take
the first step?

You do not need to have everything figured out before reaching out. Whether you have questions or you are ready to schedule a free consultation, I would love to connect.

Phone (323) 301-3886
Email marcellastanleymft@gmail.com
In Person Santa Monica, CA 90403
Serving West Los Angeles, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Bel Air & Venice
Telehealth Available statewide in California
Fee $175 per session, or sliding scale
Supervisor Melina Alden, LMFT #105722

Marcella practices under the supervision of a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences for registered AMFTs.

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Serving Santa Monica · Brentwood · Pacific Palisades · Beverly Hills · Bel Air · Venice · West Los Angeles · Telehealth throughout California

Marcella Stanley, AMFT #155995 | Supervised by Melina Alden, LMFT #105722 | marcellastanleytherapy.com | Santa Monica, CA 90403

Psychotherapy for children, teenagers and families