MLP THERAPY GROUP

RELATIONSHIP THERAPY FOR WOMEN & COUPLES IN BROOKLYN AND NY

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BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION
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IN PERSON &
VIRTUAL SESSIONS

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INSTANT INSURANCE
VERIFICATION

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BUILT BY WOMEN
FOR WOMEN

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RELATIONSHIP-FIRST
THERAPISTS

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WHO WE HELP

Get support with the relationships, transitions, and patterns that shape your life.

  • Woman sitting in therapy

    WOMEN

    Navigating anxiety, burnout, relationship stress, and emotional overwhelm.

    LEARN MORE
  • Couples going to couples therapy in Brooklyn

    COUPLES

    Feeling stuck in conflict, disconnection, or painful recurring patterns.

    LEARN MORE
  • New mother holding baby in Postpartum Therapy

    NEW & EXPECTING MOTHERS

    Adjusting to motherhood, identity shifts, matrescence, and postpartum challenges.

    LEARN MORE
  • Adults sitting together in Brooklyn

    ADULTS

    Healing from relational wounds that continue to affect the present.

    LEARN MORE
  • Woman in NYC on Subway going on a Date

    SINGLES

    Feeling exhausted by repeating patterns in dating and relationships.

    LEARN MORE
FIND THE RIGHT SUPPORT

Our work helps you better understand yourself, navigate relationships more confidently, and feel more grounded in everyday life.

HOW WE HELP

  • Whether you’re feeling disconnected, stuck in recurring conflict, or struggling to communicate, couples therapy creates space to understand the patterns shaping your relationship. Together, we work toward more honest communication, deeper connection, and healthier ways of navigating conflict and repair.

  • Motherhood can bring joy, love, overwhelm, grief, identity shifts, and emotional exhaustion—often all at once. We support women navigating postpartum challenges, matrescence, changing relationships, and the emotional complexity of becoming a parent. Therapy offers space to process these transitions, reconnect with yourself, and move through this season with more support and clarity.

  • Anxiety and burnout can leave you feeling emotionally exhausted, disconnected, or constantly overwhelmed. Together, we explore what’s underneath those patterns while building practical tools for regulation, clearer boundaries, and a greater sense of balance in daily life.

  • Dating and relationships can feel exhausting when the same emotional patterns keep repeating. Therapy helps you understand attachment dynamics, relationship fears, and the experiences shaping how you connect. The goal is not perfection—but relationships that feel healthier, more secure, and more aligned with who you are.

  • Trauma can continue shaping how you feel, relate, and move through life long after difficult experiences end. Using relational therapy and evidence-based approaches like EMDR, we help you process painful experiences, regulate your nervous system, and rebuild a greater sense of safety, self-trust, and connection.

  • Your relationship with your body can shift through motherhood, stress, aging, hormonal changes, or years of self-criticism and comparison. Body image struggles often affect far more than appearance alone, shaping self-esteem, relationships, intimacy, and confidence. Using a relational and intuitive eating approach, therapy helps you understand the emotional patterns and pressures shaping how you see yourself so you can reconnect with your body from a place of greater compassion and self-trust.

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Relationships are what we do best.

The way we relate affects every part of our lives—from communication and conflict to parenting, dating, and self-understanding. Our work is grounded in the understanding that emotional well-being and sense of self are shaped through relationships.

EXPLORE OUR SPECIALTIES

WHO WE ARE

Get to know these thoughtful, specialized relationship therapists in Brooklyn who are helping women and couples navigate anxiety, identity shifts, relationship challenges, and life transitions every day.

  • Sydney Sturner, LMSW, therapist at MLP Therapy Group

    SYDNEY STURNER, LMSW

    ASSOCIATE THERAPIST

    DATING
    EMDR/TRAUMA
    MOTHERHOOD

    GET TO KNOW SYDNEY
  • Rachel Geisler, LMSW, therapist at MLP Therapy Group

    RACHEL GEISLER, LMSW

    ASSOCIATE THERAPIST

    COUPLES THERAPY
    ANXIETY
    RELATIONSHIPS

    GET TO KNOW RACHEL
  • Emily Walsh, LMSW, therapist at MLP Therapy Group

    EMILY WALSH, LMSW

    ASSOCIATE THERAPIST

    COUPLES THERAPY
    MOTHERHOOD
    ANXIETY

    GET TO KNOW EMILY
  • Melissa Paul, LCSW, founder and therapist at MLP Therapy Group

    MELISSA PAUL, LCSW

    FOUNDER & HEAD CLINICIAN

    COUPLES THERAPY
    MOTHERHOOD
    EMDR

    GET TO KNOW MELISSA

  • "She listens and remembers and makes perceptive observations."

    I can’t speak highly enough about Rachel. I have had several therapists over the course of my life and she is my favorite of all of them. She listens and remembers and makes perceptive observations. She helps you to understand yourself better. I always leave the sessions feeling supported and heard and I always have learned something helpful.
    — Rachel’s former client

  • "Working with Melissa has been a transformative experience through and through."

    Working with Melissa has been a transformative experience through and through. She is incredibly skilled and knowledgeable and approaches every conversation about any topic with compassion, kindness, and empathy. I’ve felt supported by Melissa since day one and have been able to make huge, positive changes in my relationships and professional life because of our work together. I can’t recommend her highly enough!
    —Melissa’s client

  • "Sydney makes me feel so safe."

    Sydney makes me feel so safe. Before I started working with her, I felt so anxious. Since working with her I feel like I have understood myself and why I do things- it’s been life changing. I highly recommend Sydney for anyone looking for support.
    —Sydney’s client

  • "She is incredibly thoughtful and always seems to know exactly when to give space and when to guide."

    I have been working with Rachel for years now. She is incredibly thoughtful and always seems to know exactly when to give space and when to guide. Good therapists can be very tough to come by, Rachel is one!!
    —Rachel’s colleague

  • "I feel so understood when I meet with her and truly have made so much progress in my goals."

    Sydney is wonderful. I feel so understood when I meet with her and truly have made so much progress in my goals. I feel like Sydney is so warm and compassionate and it is wonderful to work with a therapist who just gets it. I am so happy I found her!!
    —Sydney’s client

  • "Melissa is kind and thoughtful practitioner and was able to help me through a truly difficult period in my life."

    I never knew the true power of diligent therapy practice and with her guidance I changed my life. Melissa is kind and thoughtful practitioner and was able to help me through a truly difficult period in my life. I will be forever grateful.
    —Melissa’s client

WHY MLP FEELS DIFFERENT

We help women and couples understand the emotional and relationship patterns shaping their lives.

  • Soft abstract background for the section: Therapy That Moves Beyond the Surface

    THERAPY THAT MOVES BEYOND THE SURFACE.

    At MLP Therapy Group, we look beyond surface-level symptoms to understand what’s driving them. Our work helps clients make sense of the ways they connect, cope, and move through relationships—creating change that feels more intentional and more lasting.

  • Sunlight reflecting through rippling water background for the section: We Focus on Patterns, Not Just Problems

    WE FOCUS ON PATTERNS, NOT JUST PROBLEMS.

    Rather than focusing only on symptoms or individual situations, we help you identify the cycles that keep showing up across relationships, parenting, and the way you relate to yourself. Understanding those cycles creates the possibility for deeper, more lasting change—instead of repeating the same struggles in different forms.

  • Soft underwater light and floating bubbles background for the section: We Integrate Attachment, Relational, and Evidence-Based Approaches

    WE INTEGRATE ATTACHMENT, RELATIONAL, AND EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACHES.

    Our work is grounded in attachment theory and relational psychotherapy, helping you understand how early experiences shape the way you connect and cope today. We also draw from evidence-based approaches so the work is both emotionally deep and clinically sound—supporting insight and real-world change.

  • Soft abstract background for the section: We Meet You Where You Are

    WE MEET YOU WHERE YOU ARE.

    Your experiences, relationships, family system, and cultural background all shape your story. We don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. Therapy is adapted to fit your specific relational history and what you actually need—and the therapeutic relationship itself is central to that work.

  • Gentle ocean waves background for the section: We Balance Deep Insight With Practical Tools

    WE BALANCE DEEP INSIGHT WITH PRACTICAL TOOLS.

    We help you understand why you feel, react, and relate the way you do—while also giving you practical tools to navigate everyday life differently. Insight without action can leave you understanding everything but changing very little. Tools without insight can feel temporary. Therapy should offer both.

HOW RELATIONSHIP THERAPY CAN HELP

Relationship therapy helps you understand the patterns shaping how you relate, communicate, and move through life.

  • BREAK RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS

    Maybe you’ve noticed the same dynamic showing up across relationships, situations, or different stages of your life. Insight can help, but it doesn’t always stop the cycle. Therapy helps you understand what’s underneath those patterns so you can begin responding differently in the moments that matter most.

  • FEEL SECURE IN LOVE AND ATTACHMENT.

    You may find yourself pulling away when relationships become emotionally close, or reaching for reassurance that never fully settles the anxiety underneath. Therapy helps you understand how attachment patterns shape the way you connect, communicate, and seek safety in relationships—so connection can begin to feel steadier.

  • NAVIGATE MOTHERHOOD WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF.

    Becoming a mother changes more than your schedule. It can shift your identity, your relationships, and the way you relate to yourself in ways that are difficult to name. Therapy creates space to process the grief, guilt, overwhelm, and emotional complexity of this transition so you can stay connected to yourself through it.

  • COMMUNICATE WITH MORE CONFIDENCE & CLARITY

    If expressing your needs directly feels harder than it should, there’s often something deeper underneath it. Maybe you go quiet, over-explain, or avoid certain conversations altogether. Therapy helps uncover the patterns that make communication feel risky so you can speak more honestly, set clearer limits, and feel more grounded doing it.

  • FEEL LESS ANXIOUS AND MORE GROUNDED.

    Anxiety rarely lives in just one place. It shows up in your body, your relationships, the way you anticipate things before they happen. Rather than just managing symptoms, we look at what’s driving the anxiety underneath—so you can feel more settled and less like you’re constantly working to hold things together.

  • UNDERSTAND YOURSELF MORE DEEPLY.

    Sometimes the ways we cope, relate, and react can feel automatic or difficult to understand. Relationship therapy helps connect those patterns to the experiences and relationships that shaped them—so your responses begin to make sense rather than feeling like something happening outside your control. From there, change can feel more intentional, meaningful, and lasting.

Getting started is simple.

HOW IT WORKS

REACH OUT
Fill out our consultation form. We’ll follow up to schedule a brief call to learn more about what you’re looking for and answer any initial questions.

1

FIND YOUR FIT
We’ll match you with the therapist best suited to your needs, goals, and preferences.

2

BEGIN THERAPY
Start getting the support, gaining insight, and finding the change you’ve been looking for.

3

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • Yes. We offer both in-person sessions in Brooklyn and virtual therapy throughout New York and New Jersey. Many people choose a hybrid approach depending on their schedule and needs week to week.

    Research consistently shows that virtual therapy can be just as effective as in-person therapy for most concerns, including anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and even EMDR.

  • MLP Therapy Group is an out-of-network practice. This allows us to provide care that’s tailored to your needs without the restrictions often required by insurance companies.

    At the end of each month, we provide a superbill that you can submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement. Many of our clients receive between 60–80% reimbursement for sessions.

    During your consultation, we’ll help you better understand your coverage, estimated reimbursement, and overall cost of care. We offer a sliding scale and want to work with you to make therapy accessible.

  • Finding the right therapist can feel similar to dating—the connection matters. Each therapist at MLP Therapy Group brings their own style, training, and personality to the work.

    When you schedule a consultation, we’ll learn more about what you’re going through and help match you with the therapist who feels like the best fit for your needs, goals, and preferences.

  • The first session is a chance for us to get to know each other and begin understanding what brought you to therapy. Your therapist will ask questions about your current challenges, relationships, and personal history.

    You’re encouraged to ask questions and share what you hope to gain from therapy. Our goal is to create a warm, collaborative, and non-judgmental space where you feel comfortable beginning this work.

  • Yes. We work with individuals and couples navigating a wide range of concerns. Whether you’re seeking support individually or within your relationship, our goal is to help you better understand yourself, strengthen connection, and create more meaningful and lasting change.

  • Most people start with weekly sessions. Research shows that consistency creates the strongest foundation for progress and change. Over time, clients may transition to biweekly sessions depending on their needs, goals, and stage of therapy.

    We’ll work collaboratively to find a rhythm that feels supportive, manageable, and aligned with what you’re looking for.

  • It depends on what you’re working on. Some people notice meaningful shifts within the first month, while deeper trauma, longstanding relationship patterns, or complex anxiety can take longer. Progress isn’t always linear, and meaningful change often happens gradually. Our goal is for you to feel increasingly supported, understood, and clear about yourself throughout the process. We typically recommend weekly sessions and regularly check in on your goals so you’re never left wondering whether therapy is helping.

GET STARTED NOW 
You don’t have to keep doing this alone.

Whether you’re feeling stuck in your relationships, overwhelmed by motherhood, or exhausted by anxiety, therapy can help you move toward deeper understanding and lasting change.

BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULT TODAY