Marcia J. Gomez

English and Spanish Attention

Psychotherapist and teacher specializing in the Gottman Method. She began her studies at the Catholic University of Chile and graduated with a master's degree in social work with a specialization in mental health at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving her clinical license from the state of California, she continued to delve into and practice different psychological treatment methods to work most effectively with families and couples.

During her master's studies, she began to specialize in the structural family therapy method and used this model from 1994 when she worked at the Alameda County Department of Mental Health in Oakland, California, and then from 2000 to 2009, in the Department of Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanent, Santa Rosa, California.

In 2002, she began her specialization in couples therapy using the Gottman Method and in her private practice she began working exclusively with couples using this model. After completing her specialization directly with doctors John and Julie Gottman, she continued her preparation in couples work with Susan Johnson —creator of emotion-focused couples therapy— and with Dan Wile —creator of collaboration-based couples therapy. .

Marcia is part of The Gottman Institute's team of professionals, leaders, and teachers of the Gottman Method. In addition, she has the privilege of participating in periodic meetings with doctors John and Julie and her team to evaluate and continue to refine the method.

In 2009, she left Kaiser Permanent and since then has dedicated herself exclusively to couples work, training professionals, research, and translation into Spanish of all Gottman material.

She is a pioneer of the Gottman method in Latin America. Together with her husband, she has translated all the training manuals and other intervention materials. She has been a guest on radio and television programs in the community, and on several occasions has participated in national public radio programs for the Spanish-speaking community.

Since 2008, Marcia and her colleague Michael Basta have been offering specialized training in the Gottman Method in California and are frequently invited to give conferences on the method at different professional organizations in California. She was also invited by the Gottman Institute to speak about the Gottman Method and Latino culture.

Once the method material was translated into Spanish, Marcia began teaching it in Argentina, Guatemala, and different cities in Mexico.

Part of her legacy is making sure the tools this method offers reach as many couples as possible. That is why she also offers couples workshops in English in California three times a year and in Spanish in other Latin American countries. In these workshops, Marcia has the pleasure of working with her husband and demonstrating real-life situations from her own relationship to teach couples how to use the new tools.