Group Therapy

Individual therapy has its place. There are depths to your healing that are best supported by exploration in an intimate 1:1 container. We believe this wholeheartedly, which is why we offer a range of services catered to depth-oriented work.

And - we also believe in the importance of community. Growing alongside others, being witnessed, and seeing your experience represented in others is what our group offerings are all about.

Jump to an offering

• Pockets of Presence: Therapeutic Nature Gatherings & Community Connection

• Slow Sundays: Living with Intention & the Art of Noticing

• Unmasking Gently: An IFS relational process group for highly masked autistic women

Current workshop Offering:

Therapeutic Nature Gatherings & Community Connection

Pockets of Presence are 2-3 hour gatherings in nature featuring  forest bathing meditations and mindfulness exercises led by psychotherapist and nature therapy guide Marina Mendes.

These afternoons open with gentle breathwork, somatic release, and guided meditation to soften into attuned connection with self, one another, and the land. Together, participants will listen to what their bodies and the earth around them have to say, and honor the present moment just as it is.

From there, a series of nature therapy exercises will invite participants into deeper connection with the land. Each invitation will be followed by a round of group sharing. 

Events will close with sound healing, tea, and opportunity for more casual community connection.

This is a space to simply be ~ to honor what is, to remember what it feels like to slow down, to gather with like-minded community, and to let the present moment be enough.

Each session features different invitations, so feel free to come to one or come to all, knowing that each will be its own experience.

Please email marina@therapyonfig.com with any questions and to join this gathering!

Upcoming Group Therapy Offering (June)

An IFS relational process group for highly masked autistic women

Many late-identified autistic women describe a lifetime of masking, learning how to blend in, read rooms, and script conversations. You may have been called “high functioning,” a term that often overlooks the immense effort required to push through sensory or social exhaustion behind the scenes.

When the realization of autism arrives, whether through a formal diagnosis or the deep resonance of self-discovery, there is the relief of finally having language for your experience, and the grief for the years spent misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or wondering who you might have been if you’d been allowed to exist as a person who was never broken.

We’ve built this specifically for the parts of you that are tired of holding it all together.

This 8-week relational process group is a small, intentional container (5 people max) for women in their 30s to move away from the pressure of performance. Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS), we will get curious about the protective parts of your system, the ones that learned to mask, people-please, and monitor the world to keep you safe, while making room for you to explore your autistic identity.

This group is for you if:

• The "anxiety" label never felt like the whole story, and you’ve spent years in therapy for perfectionism or depression while feeling like a core piece of the puzzle was missing. You’re discovering or strongly suspect you are autistic later in life.

• You’ve been described as “high functioning” but feel exhausted behind the scenes. You are tired of being the high-achieving, go-to person and of experiencing cycles of deep overwhelm, sudden shutdown, or the heavy fog of autistic burnout.

• You feel like you are constantly monitoring or performing. Whether it’s scripting conversations or camouflaging your sensory needs, the pressure to perform in social situations has left you feeling disconnected from yourself.

• Your boundaries feel blurry, and you often feel misunderstood. You may feel hyper-responsible for others’ emotions while struggling to name your own.

• You want to better understand your nervous system and internal experiences. You are ready to move from "fixing" a perceived deficit to supporting your unique neuro-affective needs with clarity and compassion.

• You are curious about what life might feel like with less pressure to mask. You’re looking for a space where you can learn the task of unmasking: grieving what was lost and experiencing the joy of belonging.

Self-discovered autistics are welcome. A formal diagnosis is not required.

Together we’ll explore...

• the impact of lifelong masking and misattunement

• how autism, trauma, and nervous system differences interact

• identity shifts that often come with late discovery

• perfectionism, hyper-responsibility, and internalized expectations

• relational patterns that developed in response to misunderstanding

• communication, boundaries, and expressing needs more clearly

• ways to relate to protective parts of yourself with curiosity rather than criticism

• what it might mean to live with greater self-trust, capacity awareness, and choice around masking

Meet your therapist

As a late-discovered autistic woman in her mid 30s, Gabriella (she/her) intimately understands the hyper-responsibility and the chronic exhaustion that stems from a lifetime of translating your internal world for a neurotypical society.

As a level 1 trained Internal Family Systems therapist, her work is deeply influenced by the intersection of IFS and Neurodiversity. Gabriella believes that in an autistic system, the "core Self" is also autistic, meaning healing isn’t about becoming more neurotypical, but about unburdening the protective parts that have spent decades masking, people-pleasing, and hyper-monitoring the world just to belong and feel safe.

With a compassionate, direct style, she curates this group intentionally, thoughtful of the relational and group dynamic history for a high-achieving or highly masked autistic woman. In a world where secure attachment is often defined by neurotypical metrics, she is here to help you understand that it’s possible to move through different styles of attachment by understanding how to tune into your autistic nervous system.

The goal is not to “fix” autism, but to cultivate self-understanding, compassionate internal relationships, and supportive connections with others who share similar experiences.

Upcoming Group Offering (Fall)

Living with Intention & the Art of Noticing

Gathering in Mindful Presence & Self-Inquiry

Slow Sundays is a 6-week women’s program to support you in cultivating more presence and intention to enjoy a life that feels like yours. This group is a soft place to be in connection with yourself and a like-minded community.

This group might be for you if you…

• find yourself often lost in thought, worried, or thinking about what’s next

• want to slow down & simplify

• are feeling scattered, burnt out, or overwhelmed

• year for more meaningful connections with other women

• struggle to make decisions and connect with your intuition

• want to live with more intention

• feel called to live a more embodied, present life aligned with the rhythms of the natural world

Together, we’ll explore:

• mindfulness & the art of noticing

• listening to your body

• living with intention

• values & rituals

• connection with nature

Participating in the group can complement or replace your individual therapy.

WHAT TO EXPECT: TYPICAL SESSION FLOW

• An Opening Poem – Each session begins with a poem to orient us toward presence.

• Meditation – Shared silent sit.

• Movement – Letting the body speak.

• Self-attunement – Practicing the art of noticing.

• Invitation  – Guided reflective inquiry or offering, unique to each week (Example topics include values, rituals, and listening to your body).

• Connection – Opportunity to share, listen, and witness each other.

• Closing intention – We’ll close with a simple space for each voice, sharing an intention for the week ahead.

Meet your guide

This group is held by Marina Mendes, Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #15511, Certified Nature Therapy Guide, Registered Yoga Teacher, and Level 2 Sound Practitioner. In addition, Marina has completed training for Level 1 Internal Family Systems (IFS Institute) and Somatic Coaching (Body-Based Breakthrough). She is supervised by Sharon Yu, LMFT #50028

Seasoned in creating safe spaces, Marina serves as a compassionate guide to meeting all of life with loving presence. She specializes in supporting young adult women toward deeper connection with themselves, others, and the world around them through an intuitive weaving of mindfulness practices, parts work, and somatic movement. Her healing containers are guided by the wisdom of nature and held with the intention to honor the expansiveness of the human experience. Marina is fully devoted to this sacred path, having previously worked as a wilderness guide, climate policy advocate, teacher, and youth mentor. At the heart of all her offerings lies an invitation to love and dance with life.

Curious if this might be for you?

I invite you to take a few moments to yourself. Plant your feet on the ground and notice the contact points where your body meets the earth – or the chair, bed, couch, or floor beneath you. 

Take a long, slow inhale through the nose, followed by a longer, slower exhale out the mouth.

Now close your eyes and visualize a person, activity, or place that you love without question. Give this image some color - what does it look like, smell like, sound like, feel like? Take a few more deep breaths, holding this in your awareness. How does this feel in your body?

Finally, from this place of love, consider why you would sign up for a group like this. What is your why? And as that comes to the surface, consider if your why aligns with the energy you hope to engage with and embody in the new year.