Mary Anne Costerella, MA, LADC

Mary Anne Costerella, MA, LADC is a Licensed Addictions and Mental Health Clinician in the state of Connecticut. She graduated with a dual Masters’ Degree in Counseling Psychology and Pastoral Counseling from St. Joseph College in West Hartford. State and Internationally Certified for 25 years, she was employed by several hospital systems including Natchaug, Middlesex and Hartford Healthcare where she focused on helping clients understand Substance (Alcohol & Other Drugs) and Process Addictions (relationships, work, food, money, sex, shopping, etc.) are self-soothing attempts to medicate inner woundedness from the traumas and loneliness of childhood and adolescence. She also managed the coordination of a state clinically structured treatment team supportive of healthcare professionals (Physicians, Nurses, Dentists, etc.) at risk for impairment from Chemical Dependency, Physical and Emotional Illness.

Mary Anne’s skilled and experienced clinical style offers a deeper awareness of a client’s addictive/avoidant behaviors by teaching, holding space, and offering permission to explore internalized shame from codependent family systems. She utilizes the Gestalt ’empty chair’ technique to de-stigmatize and separate the ‘addict’ within from the human being.She educates the client about the interrelationship between addictive disease and the cyclical effects of ‘mental’ illness on chronic relapsing patterns. She wants clients to perceive the addiction as a ‘relationship’ chosen to help them survive and transition from a ‘place’ where their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs were unintentionally compromised by intergenerational traumas.

Mary Anne challenges traditional notions of psychotherapy by integrating clinical expertise with holistic and existential perspective. Psychology is defined as the study of the ‘psyche’ and ‘psyche’ is a Greek word meaning SOUL-the energy within the container of the BODY. As Carl Jung explains, “The Intuitive Mind is a Sacred Gift and the Rational Mind is a Faithful Servant.”

Mary Anne enjoys spending free time practicing hot yoga, walking, playing pickleball, theater, playing piano, reading and attending family & friend gatherings. She believes ‘the client is the family and the family is the client’ in the paraphrased words of Virginia Satir, Family Therapist.Mary Anne is passionate about the group dynamic and believes ‘Compulsive Self-Reliance is the Dis/ease (lack of ease) and ‘Connection is the Cure’.

Mary Anne offers:

• Mary Anne works with Adolescents, Adults, Individuals, Couples and Families.
• Addictive and Trauma-related Disorders (Anxiety/Depression)Codependency (Perfectionism/Shame-Based Family Systems)
• Certified Grief Educator (David Kessler, Grief Expert)
• Psychodrama (Gestalt Techniques)
• Anxiety as the Missing Stage of GriefYour Body Speaks Your MindRelapse
• Prevention Therapy (Certified Relapse Prevention Therapist)