Maryanne Rigby, M.A., MFT

My introduction into the world of psychology was one I fell into more than chose.  I view my life as a ladder where each rung I climb, has led me to the place I am today.  It started while growing up on the mission field in Mexico observing my parents helping people daily.  When we moved to California when I was 7, my parent never stopped helping people.  People sought out my family for counsel, a home, or any need at all hours of the day and night. 

I have always had a love for children especially those without families.  I continued the family business in human services by going to an orphanage in Mexico once a month through out junior high and high school.   In college, I worked with homeless children that lived in Skid Row. Many of these children had families but where surrounded daily by abuse, drugs, gangs and gunfire. 

When I graduated from college with my B.A. in Youth Ministry, I went to work at The L.A. Mission.  My experience at the mission was rewarding and I learned a great deal from the women there.  I saw that the cycle of poverty, drugs, violence, and child abuse was going to continue in there lives, unless early intervention was done.  As much as I had grown to love the men and women at the mission, I missed working with children. 

I continued on my journey as a social worker, working with foster parents and children who had been removed from their homes. As a social worker, I realized that somewhere in the world of child abuse, reunification, foster parents, and group homes were children who desperately wanted parents and families who loved them.  I also realized that my experience, education, and training had not prepared me for how to help mend a broken family.

School had always been a challenge for me, to put it mildly.  But, my friends would describe me as committed, and that I was. I went to Antioch University, Los Angeles and received my Masters degree in Clinical Psychology with a Child Studies Specialization.  It was through my studies, trainings, and relationships at Antioch that I began to learn that healing in families could really happen, and that the life of a child from a generation of violence, abuse, shame, and hurt could come to a place of healing.  

While I joined the family business in human services as a young child, I have worked in the field of psychology since graduating with my Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. I am now a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  In my clinical practice, I work with children, adolescents, individuals, and their families.  I am EMDR trained and work with issues relating to trauma, primarily in children or traumas that occurred in childhood.  I have a special interest in working with foster and adopted children.   I also work with parents on behavioral issues at home and at school.  I was trained at the Love and Logic institute and am a facilitator    for “Becoming a love and logic parent.”

I do some consulting with schools, parents, and child organization to develop behavior plans for home and the classroom, discuss children’s grief, or help parents prepare for adopting a new child.