Marikay Gazda

Marikay Gazda is a licensed clinical social worker in Illinois who has been practicing since 1991 and brings 35 years of clinical experience to her work. She has extensive experience helping people manage generalized anxiety, depressive symptoms, feelings of isolation, caregiver stress and fatigue, chronic or life-threatening medical issues, end-of-life concerns, and transitions across the lifespan.

As a Certified Grief Counselor, Marikay supports individuals who feel stuck in their grief and loss. She recognizes that grief reactions are not limited to bereavement - loss can occur in relationships, health, employment, or the shift to an empty nest - and that the resulting sadness, anxiety, low mood, and physical symptoms can affect a person’s ability to engage fully in life.

Her therapeutic style is warm, compassionate, interactive, and positive. Marikay places great importance on the client-therapist relationship as the foundation for effective work and uses a client-centered, goal-oriented approach grounded in a strengths perspective. She integrates Emotionally Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy to help clients understand how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact and to create practical goals for change.

In grief work she draws on evidence-informed frameworks such as the Dual Process Model, which encourages clients to alternate between confronting and taking breaks from grief, and the Continuing Bonds Model, which helps people create new meaning and relationships with their loss. Marikay aims to partner with clients in an empathetic and safe space so that each session leaves them feeling more hopeful about the possibility of change.