A man smiling outdoors on a cloudy day, wearing a dark coat, green knit hat, and black scarf, with rocky terrain and a partly cloudy blue sky in the background.

Hi, I’m Marcus, a Melbourne-based psychotherapist and counsellor specialising in Emotion Focused Therapy.


Being a therapist isn’t just a job for me—it’s a way of being that is influenced by all that I am and all I have been.

I have always been naturally curious about the human psyche, existential dilemmas, and patterns of behaviour and attachment, even as a young child. Though I felt self-aware and sensitive to my internal life in my early years, as I moved through adolescence and into adulthood I increasingly encountered strange puzzles in my existence that I could not find answers for despite my endless searching, and was often left confused about why I had reacted or failed to react to what I faced in life. My emotions were often baffling to me and left me feeling stuck and overwhelmed. To protect myself from feeling them I hid behind my intellect and rational thought, which in effect cut me off from my body and the wisdom available in my somatic experience. As a result of this disconnection, I felt like a passive bystander in my life. Rather than seek support from others, I kept my concerns to myself and believed that I could find answers and fulfilment from various forms of escapism like work, study, creative pursuits, spirituality, and relationships; and these all worked to some degree to fill the void. However in my heart of hearts I knew that I was ultimately deeply disconnected from myself and creating the vital existence I wanted. Eventually I realised I couldn’t do it on my own any longer.

Then I tried something different by reaching out for help in therapy.

Within the safe and affirming therapeutic relationship with my therapist, I began to build self-awareness about how I was the way that I was, learn how my early influences had laid the blueprint for my maladaptive coping responses in the present, understand how my attachment style affected my present relationships, and comprehend how much of my way of being was based on fear and defence rather than love and openness. Through years of dedicated engagement in therapy, particularly in the modality of Emotion Focused Therapy, I was able to begin my voyage of healing and transformation.

My goal as a therapist is to provide the same empathic, warm, authentic, affirming, safe, non-judgemental support and guidance to my clients.

My clinical experience covers working with a wide range of problems such as anxiety, depression, OCD, grief, addiction, trauma, life transitions, existential questioning, and relational concerns. I strive to be affirming in my practice, particularly in relation to all aspects of identity—including cultural identity, neurodiversity, gender, disability, and sexuality. I bring to sessions not only this experience and my clinical expertise in psychology and psychotherapy, but also my humanity and lived experience as a fellow traveller on his own adventure of discovery. In our work together I will honour your own unique history and always allow you and your experience to guide us. This process is not about me being the expert giving you advice, but rather about helping you develop a deeper understanding of yourself, guiding you towards removing obstacles to growth, and not allowing you to get stuck in unhealthy patterns and emotions that keep you unhappy and disengaged. I acknowledge that life is mysterious and we often don’t know where we are and where we are going. From this state of ‘not knowing’, true meeting and presence can be born; from this wellspring, we can begin our therapy work.

Let’s discover the way forward together.

Areas of focus

I am most in my element helping people with the following concerns:

  • Anxiety and anxiety disorders

  • Depression

  • Relationship / interpersonal concerns

  • Developmental trauma

  • Internal conflict: Perfectionism, procrastination and internal criticism

  • Emotional and somatic dysregulation

  • Existential / life meaning / purpose concerns

  • Attachment wounds

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

  • Loneliness and disconnection

  • Low self-esteem and shame

Qualifications and training

  • Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy:
    The Cairnmillar Institute 

  • Emotion Focused Therapy Level 1 & Level 2:
    Australian Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy (AIEFT)

  • Three Phased Approach for Working with Complex Trauma:
    Blue Knot

  • Skills-based Training on Suicide Risk Management (STORM):
    Headspace

Professional memberships

  • Certified Practising Member:
    Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)
    [Registration Number: 29323]

How I work

A focus on emotion

My therapeutic approach is humanistic and person-centred at heart and has expanded recently to specialise in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT).

EFT is an evidence-based, truma-informed psychotherapy approach that places emotion at the forefront of the human experience and psychological change process. It views emotions not as random events that happen to us, but rather as information-rich messengers alerting us to our need for safety, love, connection, and acceptance. Emotions can be healthy and adaptive or unhealthy and maladaptive depending on our experiences of them and how others have responded (or failed to respond) to them in the past. In therapy, simply talking about emotion or experiencing brief catharsis isn’t enough to bring lasting change—we must experience and engage with our emotional experiences fully, moving through them then making new meaning out of them. From this new foundation new ways of being in the world can arise, allowing you to escape your cyclical behavioural patterns with a new sense of agency and freedom.

This change process is enacted within a safe, affirming, and warm therapeutic relationship that allows you to feel understood, thus enabling you to fully explore your vulnerable emotions no matter how scary or dangerous they feel. As core emotional pain can often result from negative experiences with past attachment figures, the importance of the attachment relationship with me as your therapist is paramount, as it provides you with corrective emotional experiences that allow you to reconfigure your internal working model of self and your emotion schemes at a fundamental level.

EFT is informed by attachment theory, emotion theory, and affective neuroscience. It is evidence-based and has been shown to be effective with treating depression, anxiety disorders, complex trauma, and interpersonal concerns.

An integrative approach

Despite my focus on EFT, my approach is also integrative in that I see each client and their needs as unique, and I make sure that the therapeutic modality and interventions offered in our sessions are tailored specifically for you. As a result, my therapeutic style is informed by various other psychotherapy modalities such as:

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Gestalt Therapy

  • Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

  • Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

  • Existential Psychotherapy

  • Somatic Psychotherapy

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

  • Animal-Assisted Therapy

  • Narrative Therapy

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

In addition to my psychotherapy training, I bring to sessions the combined wisdom and influence of eastern and western philosophy, Zen Buddhism, literature, film, and poetry. I meditate daily and aspire to practice mindful presence in every moment of my life—an attitude that I also bring to my psychotherapy practice.

More about Emotion Focused Therapy


Les Greenberg, one of the founders of Emotion Focused Therapy, explains how EFT relates to and conceptualises mental health concerns.