About Marianna Jakucska, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Meet the mind behind Open Mind—Open Wings, online therapy for thinkers

Online Therapy for Thinkers

 If you feel like a puzzle piece from another box, we may already know each other.

Curious and independent, you and I have minds of our own. Professionals thinking daily on our feet, we try hard to understand things rather than settle for easy answers, and care about how our choices affect others.

Figuring out the rules and playing twister to fit them can be exhausting business. You anticipate what others expect, weigh every possibility, and try to make the right choice. You follow the prescribed rules and you sure hope that they lead you to happiness. Have they?

You may have done therapy but still wonder why you’re not happy. 

You’ve moved beyond the crisis, but what if the absence of symptoms isn’t the same as a fulfilled life?

What if you are following rules that are not made specifically for you?

What’s good for the species may not be good for the individual, especially considering that we follow rules shaped by biology, our upbringing, and social conventions that are hardly personal in nature. We may look alike on the outside, but internally, we can be light-years apart in how we think, feel, experience life—and what we need for fulfillment. What excites you may be questions that broaden your views, but your partner may prefer flowers to being endlessly challenged.

Why not venture a little further from the crowd if you care about your personal wellbeing?

What else becomes possible when you arrive at the limits and boundaries of your experience?

Send Me A Message

When I listen, I actually explore

I don’t just listen. I actively explore you. I notice what fits and what doesn't fit the story you're telling me—and the story that's taking shape as you come to understand your own deeper layers. I wonder about your potential, not just your current reality. Even in silence, I'm actively constructing pictures of your Self.

What actually matters to you? What do you set aside to fit a conventional picture? Where have useful lessons hardened into rigid rules? I'm curious about what your behavior accomplishes for you, and whether there are alternatives that fit you better.

Can we re-negotiate the rules we live by? 

As you enter a universe where uncertainty is the very fabric of reality—not an option that you can eliminate—you start seeing the world in motion rather than as a collection of static entities, and recognize that truths are not absolute and safety is not guaranteed. 

When you consider that you take risks whether you take a step or stay where you are, it’s like the solid floor disappears from under your feet.

You start calculating probabilities against the backdrop of possibilities rather than seeking certainty. Understanding how your mind seeks safety in predictability and constructs a model of reality to do that helps us examine, compare, and generate alternative outcomes.

You arrive at a reality that cannot be explained, only experienced; cannot be taught through words alone, but must be seen and felt. Kind of like the distinction in the movie “Contact”: knowing about something versus living it.

What if "uncertainty” hides opportunities even while it hides dangers? What if anxiety shares roots with excitement? What if the “What if…?” questions can lead to growth, not only destruction? What if you can throw the dice and create the world you want to live in?

I don't think growth ends when the symptoms subside. I believe there's more to explore—not just how to make life manageable, but how to make it your own private universe.

Possibilities are endless. Guarantees are none.

Sometimes the smallest shift in a question opens a much larger space for choice.

Understanding the rules gives us freedom to create

Piloting a glider, an airplane that has no engine, I learned to read the air, recognize thermals, and work with the forces around me to stay aloft and find my way. We say that a takeoff is an ongoing preparation for landing, and that a mother’s caring, ground-bound advice to fly “just slow and low” spells death when you’re floating in 3D. Staying in motion is the only way to survive in the air.

I learned that the laws of nature don’t determine the outcomes of our efforts. We can change our approach to work with the laws, not against them, to manifest our visions. Gravity doesn't condemn us to walking on the ground. Understanding aerodynamics has cleared our way for takeoff.

Understanding how the mind constructs reality, assigns meanings, and calculates a trajectory for our success in life helps us construct the reality we want to live—not just the one we inherited from hard-wired fight-flight-freeze-fawn reactions. We can imagine alternatives, experiment with new responses, and make choices we couldn't see before.

Ready for a new adventure? Let's explore the rules of your life.

Open your mind and you open your wings

My aim for you is not to become better at obeying rules, nor simply at breaking them. It’s to help you understand them well enough to make your own informed choices—and use what you discover to create a life that fits you.

Sometimes that means making room for your own needs alongside those of others. Sometimes it means questioning assumptions, and taking risks to try an unfamiliar response that feels scary at first. Sometimes it means recognizing that the puzzle you've been trying to complete—internally and externally—wasn’t yours in the first place.

Life isn't a fixed picture, and you aren't a piece that has to stay where you are placed. You can learn, change direction, and discover new ways of moving through the world.

Ready for takeoff?

Meet your navigator: Marianna Jakucska, LMFT 84050

Hi, I’m Marianna. And in case you’re wondering about my accent, it’s Hungarian.

I work with thoughtful professionals who are discovering that rules don’t make or break our world. We do, choice by choice, as we explore the rules of engagement and expand what’s possible.

I earned my master's degree in counseling psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, California. I also studied psychology, religions, and philosophy of religion at San Francisco State University. My curiosity has always drawn me toward a range of disciplines, sometimes conflicting ones. Physics was my first intellectual fascination, and I still hope that one day I'll be able to wrap my mind around quantum physics and glimpse a reality that doesn't behave the way our intuition expects—static and predictable—but is in constant motion and not entirely predictable.

Licensed since December 2014, I've worked with hundreds of adults and children to achieve their goals. Over the years, I've experienced the benefits of following rules—and the hunger that can remain when following them isn't enough.

I'm also the kind of person who says what she means and means what she says. I've been told, “Don't ask Marianna unless you really want to know what she thinks.”

If you're looking for a therapist who will speak candidly, question assumptions, and offer honest observations rather than simply tell you what you want to hear, we may be a good fit. I won't pretend to have all the answers. I'm interested in exploring the questions with you.

I’m looking forward to taking off with you to explore broader horizons beyond the binary world of “good” and “bad.” Let’s connect and explore the “ugly” truth that we live in a risky world—and that we’re equipped with the creativity it takes to navigate it and enjoy the journey.

You know your life from the inside. I bring my expertise in asking questions, noticing patterns, and looking at things from different angles. Let's put our heads together and see what we discover.

Open your mind—open your wings.

Let’s take off.

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