My Approach — Mars Williams

How I Work

My Philosophy

I don't believe suffering is required for growth. Yes, hard things deserve to be witnessed — and I will sit with you in the difficult places. But I also believe that joy, pleasure, and aliveness are real destinations in their own right, not luxuries you earn after doing enough "real" work.

My approach is integrative and explicitly affirming. I work relationally — paying attention to what happens between us in the room, because our coaching relationship is itself where healing happens. I also bring somatic and embodied practices into sessions, drawing on my background as a certified yoga teacher to support integration through breath, sensation, and body-based awareness.

I bring my own long-term meditation practice and CIIS-trained integral perspective to this work — which means I'm comfortable with spiritual dimensions of experience, peak states, and the places where psychology and practice meet. I am direct, warm, and genuinely curious about you. I take your identities, relationships, and pleasures seriously — as context, as strength, and as worthy of care in their own right.

Mars in camel pose, a deep yoga backbend

Modalities

Approaches I Draw On

My coaching draws from multiple frameworks depending on what each person, couple, or polycule needs.

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IFS (Internal Family Systems)

Understanding the many "parts" of ourselves — leading from Self rather than from our reactive or protective parts. Especially useful for shame, self-criticism, and complex inner worlds.

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Somatic Therapy

Bringing attention to how emotion, pattern, and memory live in the body — breath, sensation, posture — as a window into deeper transformation, not just insight.

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Yoga & Mindfulness Integration

As a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200, Yoga Alliance #662560) and CIIS-trained coach, I can weave breathwork, body-based practices, and movement into sessions for clients who are open to it — deepening somatic integration beyond talk alone.

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Attachment & Relational Theory

Exploring how early and ongoing relational experiences shape our patterns — and how we build more secure, satisfying connection across all relationship structures.

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Gestalt Therapy

Working with what's alive and present in the room — contact, awareness, and integration of experience. Especially powerful for the here-and-now of relationships.

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CBT & DBT

Structured, practical tools for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and working with thought patterns — especially useful for anxiety, emotional intensity, and moments when the nervous system is running the show. I draw more from DBT than ACT.

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Affirmative & Liberation-Based Practice

Coaching that doesn't just tolerate marginalized identities but actively centers them. Queer-affirming, trans-competent, kink-aware, polyamory-informed.

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Psychedelic Integration

Working with what psychedelic experiences have opened — the insights, the challenging material, the questions about identity and meaning that didn't resolve themselves when the experience ended. Integration is where the real work happens.

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Contemplative & Spiritual Support

For meditators, those in spiritual emergence, and anyone navigating the intersection of practice and psychological life. I bring my own long-term meditation practice — and a non-dogmatic curiosity — to this work.

The Process

What to Expect

Free Consultation

A 15-minute call to share what's bringing you in, ask questions, and see if we're a good fit — no pressure, no commitment.

First Session

We slow down and explore where you are, what you're navigating, and what you're hoping for — including your goals around joy, pleasure, and the life you want to build.

Ongoing Sessions

Weekly 50-minute sessions (or longer for couples and polycules), tailored to where you are. We'll check in regularly and adjust as things shift.

Tapering & Completion

We'll know when you're ready. Ending well is part of the work — and something we do together with intention and care.

Who I Work With

You might be a good fit if…

✦ You're queer, trans, non-binary, or questioning — and you're looking for a coach who's genuinely excited to be in the room with you, not just tolerating you.
✦ You're in a polyamorous relationship, polycule, or exploring ENM — and I'm genuinely excited to support the particular joys and complexities that come with that.
✦ You're neurodivergent and you want a coach who's curious about — not just accommodating of — how your mind works.
✦ You're kink-active or kink-curious, and I'm kink-aware and genuinely affirming — this part of your life is welcome here, full stop.
✦ You're not just looking to feel less bad — you want to feel more alive, more present, more capable of genuine pleasure and joy.
✦ You want work that takes the body seriously — or you're interested in integrating somatic and yoga-based practices.
✦ You're on a spiritual path — meditation, contemplative practice, or something harder to name — and you want a coach who takes that seriously rather than pathologizing it.
✦ You've had a psychedelic experience you're still making sense of — whether it opened something beautiful, something difficult, or both — and you want skilled, non-judgmental support to integrate it.

Book a Free Consultation

Depth, body,and joy.