About Marilyn Stefonetti & Nutrition For Mental Health

How Do Nutrition and Psychotherapy Work Together?

I am Marilyn Stefonetti, MA, LMFT, NE, a psychotherapist and a certified Holistic Nutrition Educator with a private practice in Petaluma, California. I integrate holistic nutrition education into my psychotherapy practice for better results.

Based on 30 years of personal experience, education, and training I have come to understand that Good Food = Good Mood, Bad Food = Bad Mood. Oftentimes, anxiety and depression have their origins in nutrition.

As I continued to explore the connection between sound nutrition and mental health, I began training as a neuro-nutrient therapist with Julia Ross, author of the Mood Cure and Director of the NeuroNutrient Therapy Institute and Recovery Systems Clinic, Mill Valley, California, along with other health care professionals. In this training, we explore how diet affects our neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, are responsible for our moods and are composed of amino acids, which we find most completely in animal protein.

In addition to my 30+ years of experience, education, and training in holistic nutrition, I am a member of these professional associations: California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Redwood Empire Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, The Weston A. Price Foundation, Sandplay Therapists of America, National Association for Nutrition Professionals, Alliance for Addiction Solutions, California Association for Play Therapy, and the American Holistic Health Association.

I welcome children, adults, couples, and families. I specialize in depression, the anxiety disorders, children’s behavioral issues, and disorders of the self  (people who have trouble with maintaining relationships). Object Relations Therapy is my preferred modality. Play Therapy is my preferred treatment with children. My psychotherapy practice focuses on both interpersonal relationships and intrapsychic structure which comes from past relationships (family-of-origin) that continues to affect present interpersonal dynamics, along with the role of good nutrition.

I am a Certified Sandplay Practitioner. Sandplay is a Jungian process that doesn’t require verbal exchange between therapist and client. The therapist is the witness to the individual’s psychic process as it plays out in the sand utilizing miniature figures representing the real, symbolic, and fantasy world, ( i.e. manifestations of our inner archetypal landscape).