About Merry
Merry McKinnon is a California-licensed marriage and family therapist with 33 years of clinical experience. She focuses on building a steady, trusting relationship with each person who comes for help. Her work often centers on attention differences and learning challenges that show up as mood or social problems.
She commonly sees people who notice depression, anxiety, or low self-esteem tied to disorganization or difficulties at school and work. ADHD and related learning differences are a regular focus, as are high-functioning Autism Spectrum traits, Non-verbal Learning Disorder, and Auditory Processing Disorder.
Background and approach
She also addresses grief, motivational blocks, and addictive patterns. Merry uses a relational approach that leans on behavioral and cognitive ideas. She helps people recognize their strengths and test out small changes in daily routines and thinking.
Sessions aim to reduce self-blame and build practical skills that make day-to-day tasks feel more manageable. She believes it is never too late to find new abilities or shift long-standing habits. Treatment emphasizes steady progress rather than quick fixes, with attention to how relationships and self-image affect mood and functioning.
Clients work together with her to set clear, achievable goals. Merry offers video, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging as ways to connect. Her practice is based in California and she carries the LMFT credential, which stands for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
Approaches for attention and learning differences online
Merry commonly uses behavioral strategies that focus on changing routines and habits to make daily tasks easier. This approach breaks larger tasks into smaller steps and builds habits that reduce overwhelm, which can help with organization and concentration struggles.She also draws on cognitive ideas that look at patterns of thought that feed anxiety and low self-esteem. These simple exercises help people test unhelpful beliefs and try new ways of thinking that support motivation and mood.
Finding the right combination of approaches is part of the work. Merry will collaborate with each person to decide which techniques fit their goals, needs, and learning style. That process includes trying options and refining what helps most over time.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video lets people use visual cues and screen-sharing for worksheets, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, chat is useful for brief check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These formats make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to keep progress going even when life is hectic.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- ADHD
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Communication problems
- Depression
- Guilt and shame
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 33 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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