I am a high school freshman and although I wanted to seek counseling to help me work through both personal and family struggles, I wasn't sure it would actually be helpful to me in the end. After my first visit with David Marks, I felt differently. I was surprised that I felt comfortable instantly and I was even more surprised that I was able to connect with David. He is warm and kind, listens to what I have to say, and is able to understand what I need most. I trust David and I was able to open up to him so he could guide me to put the work in where I needed it most. He has helped both my family and I by providing us with the tools and skills to work better with each other and to better understand ourselves. David recognizes what obstacles we are coping with and he guides us to find the strategies to connect with each other and to make overall positive changes for our futures. He truly understands the difficulties teenagers and their families encounter and he is invested in helping us to grow individually and as a family unit. I feel more confident in myself and I feel more in control of my life after working with David Marks.

I had only average experience with previous therapy and was unsure about starting IFS work with David. I cannot express how grateful I feel for going through with it. My perspective about myself and the external world has completely changed in less than a year of working with David. He creates a comfortable space which has helped me find my own truth and values. I feel incredibly rewarded after each session and can see clearly the progress we have been making. Furthermore, David has taught me how to make my own progress outside of his sessions. David is extremely flexible and open. He is willing to make sacrifices in his life in order to help with yours. Besides traditional meetings, David has helped guide me in a variety of different ways. We have done walking meditations through the woods that have taught me beneficial mindfulness practices. He has provided day-long IFS sessions that incorporated my parents. These have fundamentally helped change my relationship with both my mom and dad. David even facilitated for me a three day long personal counseling retreat. This retreat provided me with a reset on life, and it has shifted the way I want to live going forward. The care and attention David brings is exceptional and rare to find. Thank you David for helping me understand that change is possible, and for helping me achieve that change.

My counseling with David began in 2020 and not too long after that, my life was essentially flipped upside down. I experienced my parents divorcing and felt abandoned by my mom moving away from my siblings and I. Looking back now, it's hard to imagine how I would have made it through this time in my life without David’s support. Walking with David every week for our counseling sessions made a world of difference. He is friendly, compassionate, and never fails to bring Self-energy to every session. David has shown me how to unburden painful beliefs that parts of myself hold from childhood. Sometimes a part of me still says that what happened was my fault. The difference presently is that my Self hears that message, and approaches it with curiosity. I tune in, and I sit with that part until it’s all caught up and reminded of who I am now, and not who I was at that time. If I can’t see this on my own, I know David will guide me. He has helped me to understand my absent mom's exiles and have compassion for them, and at the same time to be there for myself and have compassion for me too! I still talk to my mom sometimes, though our conversations are always difficult. After talking to her I have to take a moment to remember what David would say: “We can’t control what people say to us, but we have a choice in how we respond". He has taught me to look at: "When someone hurts you, how do you treat yourself?" And then I think, what messages am I sending myself? Because of David, I feel ready to go to college this fall as a social work major and start my adult life. When the inevitable times of hardship show up, I now know I’ll be okay. This is because over the past three years I have come to realize my capacity to be calm, courageous, creative, and curious about situations when they arise or soon thereafter.

When we made an appointment with David, we were reaching out at a very painful and uncertain time in our relationship. I think we both wondered whether or not it was possible to mend things between us and restore the intimacy we both yearned for. There was also a great deal of anxiety there in regards to going to counseling and opening up parts of ourselves that had long been guarded. Yet, some kind of magic began to happen in our sessions with David almost immediately. He created a space where it was okay to be exactly who we were at any given moment. He taught us to accept and welcome all our myriad parts and helped us to communicate with them and gather them into the folds of our true Self. He did this with genuine care and compassion and encouraged us to give ourselves and each other real, unconditional love. In a lot of ways, it had been a long time since we’d loved ourselves so fully and this love began to illuminate our relationship. Soon, we realized that we could be with our individual parts and with each other’s parts and it would not destroy us. In fact, it softened us, cultivated our compassionate hearts and allowed us to let each other in and express love. I don’t think we know the words to properly express our gratitude for the healing and connection that has newly developed between us. We have been given tools to see the patterns of our interactions and our conflicts and most of the time can now come out the other side consciously, finding the ground of understanding and acceptance. We make choices to support and uphold each other and share with each other our most vulnerable parts because we know that to do so is a gift to ourselves and to our relationship. David’s honesty, love and guidance has been the light showing us the way. He is a true blessing in our lives and is held dearly in our hearts. We can’t thank the universe enough for sending such a wise and compassionate being our way.

Nearly two years ago when first starting counseling with David, I didn’t expect the positive shifts that would arise in all aspects of my life from working with him. David was recommended to me by a friend, and due to unhelpful experiences with other kinds of therapy in the past, I was nervous about going back to therapy. From our first session together, David instantly made me feel so at ease and like I could open up about my feelings and experiences without judgment. I had previously been told that I had anxiety, or depression, and that those parts of me were not good and needed to be “fixed.” Instead of this way of thinking, David brings patience, kindness, and humor to each session, and this has helped me reframe my own view of myself. He guided me to see that no parts of us have bad intentions and that there is nothing inherently wrong with me, in contrast to the messages I received as a child and teenager. We’ve talked through my experiences as an immigrant and first generation American. The most comforting outcome of this has been my ability to better connect with my family, which I had previously believed to be totally impossible. No matter what goes on in my life or how bleak a situation seems, David has a way of leading me to the root of my feelings and helping me be with them, rather than shutting them out. He continues to be an invaluable source of both knowledge and empathy, and I encourage anyone seeking to learn more about themselves and everyone around them to experience the truly transformational counseling process that is IFS!

I am introverted, shy and have always had great difficulty being vulnerable and opening up. I had worked with 5 different therapists/counselors over the past 3 years and never lasted more than a couple sessions with any of them as everything felt forced. It was like I was acting rather than letting my true self show, as I never felt heard or seen. It seemed like I was just another client, unimportant, a means of making money. I thought maybe I’m just too broken, too traumatized to ever be “fixed”. Then I stumbled upon Family Life Healing and met David. I was hesitant at first, as I had never worked with a male counselor before and much of the trauma I suffered as a child stemmed from men. To my relief I felt an instant connection the first time I spoke to David, permeated by a feeling of safety, soothed by the non judgmental tone of his voice. He has a calm, understanding, intuitive demeanor which is clear and comes naturally to him. He is living his passion, his purpose and it shows in each session. I feel seen, really SEEN for the first time in my life. I have gained so much clarity, confidence and hope since working with him. I am so excited to see what the future has in store for me. Just months ago I was simply trying to survive day to day, hoping to make it to tomorrow. I often questioned my purpose and everything felt meaningless. I felt like I was hanging on by a thread and David has had the ability to shift my entire outlook on life. I am forever thankful for finding this gem. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!