Marit Bakken, LMFT

Excellent care with a caring and smart person. Very special.

A 3 years journey. It changed us as a couple and as individuals, and helped us be such better parents. She were unwavering, kind, smart and perceptive. I will forever be grateful, and am still amazed at where we started and were we are now. 6 stars.

Couples therapy is hard! There were weeks I absolutely did not want to go although I got something out of each and every session. We both came into this thinking it was a "communication issue" and I was convinced my wife had a hearing problem. What I learned was that we each needed to look inside ourselves, and it was not always pretty. But Marit was able to make it safe to be honest, and in that we were able to heal and connect.

Marit was referred to me as someone who could help my wife and I negotiate a custody agreement and parenting plan. There were many difficult feelings and matters between us, but Marit helped us see from outside ourselves, and especially through the eyes of our children. She has an uncanny ability to stay calm, when we could not, and helped as both feel heard with a focus on our long term relationship as a family even if it was changing shape. Fair, warm and able to see solutions where we could not.

My husband I were separating, and saw Marit at the recommendation of his divorce attorney. We met with her twice. Gave her a retainer and information to put in a parenting agreement template, and then she kind of disappeared. We got the information back typed in the template, but never saw her again. She never billed us, and when I asked to get the retainer back she refused - said her “standard price for a parenting agreement is 3K”, but she never worked on the agreement with us. Feel like I was robbed and very unprofessional. I also think it’s unethical not to bill. Beware.

Finding a good couples therapist is not easy, and it took us half a year to finally get to see Marit from initial contact. We were willing to wait since she had been recommended by trusted friends - their relationship completely transformed under her care. In a short amount of time we made progress, especially on our parenting issues. She had an uncanny ability to see what is going on and helped in a direct, yet gentle, way change how we related to one another. She saw my husband for some additional support in context to our relationship work, which was very helpful for us to make progress together. The only 'negative' is that it is costly, but how can you put a price on a happy marriage?

My partner and I saw Marit for over a year. In retrospect, I believe our sessions caused more harm than good, due to some poor professional judgement on her part. The main issue was that she agreed to take on my partner as a solo client as well as seeing us as a couple (which I have now learned is a quite unusual setup), and I believe this caused her to have a bias in our couples sessions. Even though it was probably an unintentional and unconscious bias, our couples sessions did turn into a "therapist, client, other" dynamic. I believe she should have anticipated that risk and not agree to see us and my partner at the same time (she offered to see me for solo sessions as well, but I have my own therapist and could not afford the fees or the time to see her as well).

In going through a very rough divorce I needed support. I was referred to Marit by a trusted source, so in spite of being skeptical I decided to give it a try. I needed help to make sure I could be the best dad for my daughter during and after the divorce. Marit is a very insightful and caring person who helped me discover that I had more, and was more, than I could see. She also has a great sense of humor and laughter does indeed heal!

Having been to several individual and couples therapists over the years I can honestly say that with her my husband and I finally got the help we needed. Simply awesome, honest and straightforward person. People should leave reviews when they meet someones so special. I know I am not the only one as I was referred by both an MD and colleague.