ABOUT MARISSA GOLDMAN
I built this practice for the woman I used to be.
My name is Marissa Goldman. I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the founder of The Vessel Therapy located in Illinois.
Before I tell you about my credentials, I want to tell you something more important. I know what it's like to be the one everyone calls. To be the one who shows up, figures it out, and holds it together. To give so freely that receiving feels foreign, almost wrong.
I've sat across from women who were physicians, therapists, attorneys, executives, women at the top of their fields, who quietly admitted they had no one to really talk to. No one who got it without needing a long explanation first.
I know that feeling. And I built this practice because of it.
WHY THE SANCTUARY EXISTS
I didn't just study this.
I lived it.
I built The Sanctuary because I know from my own experience how isolating it is to carry this kind of weight. For a long time, I carried it the only way I knew how, alone.
That experience led me to school. I wanted to understand it, clinically, structurally, deeply. And it wasn't until I found myself inside a community of women who understood that I realized something I hadn't been able to name before: I had only been surviving.
My research confirmed everything I already knew in my bones: women who give endlessly are doing so in isolation. They are surrounded by people and carry everything themselves.
So I asked myself: how do I bridge that gap? How do I create the space that didn't exist when I needed it? How do I put women together who already understand each other before anyone says a word?
The Sanctuary was born.
“Finding people who truly just get it is harder than it seems.”
MY APPROACH
How I Work.
I don't believe in sitting across from someone and telling them what's wrong with them. I don't believe in telling you what you should feel, think, or what you should do. I create space for you to just be, and feel whatever you need to feel in that moment. It is a judgment-free zone with no ulterior motives.
My work is warm, direct, and grounded in the reality of your actual life. I don't use big words simply because of my education. I don't give you homework you don't have time for. I meet you where you are, not where a textbook says you should be.
I specialize in:
Anxiety: Racing thoughts that won't quiet down. A mind that never fully clocks out, still running through everyone else's needs long after the day should be over.
Burnout: When you have given so much for so long that you no longer recognize what you need, or if you're even allowed to need anything at all.
People-Pleasing: Being unable to tell someone no, even when you don't have the time or mental capacity to carry it.
Grief & Loss: Including the grief of a life you thought you'd have, a relationship that didn't hold, or a version of yourself you've lost along the way.
Relationship Patterns: Especially for women who over-give and under-receive — and have been doing it for so long they don't know another way.
BACKGROUND
My credentials.
Name: Marissa L. Goldman, LCSW
License: Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Illinois #149028194
Education: Master of Social Work — Indiana University Northwest
Practice: Founder, The Vessel Therapy
Location: Online throughout Illinois · In-person in Homewood, IL
Ready to be on the receiving end for once?
A free 15-minute consultation. No commitment. Just a conversation.