"What I love most about my clients is they  show up to each session being brave enough to just be them."

Brittany Malak
Licensed Marriage + Family Therapist

This is where I could blab about my theories that I use in my practice or use a bunch a clinical terms, but honestly, I want you guys to know me. 

I’m proud of my weirdness and like to be in relationships with others who are unforgivably weird themselves. When I’m not being a therapist, I’m being  a women who likes to crochet, play video games, watch football, play the piano, cook, hang out with my family, pick out books to read but not actually read them, and learn about all things supernatural.

I’m also a transplant from the burbs who found my way down to Bloomington through undergrad, went back home for grad school, met my husband and fell in love, and somehow convinced him to move back to Bloomington.

Together, we started our life, away from our families, working in jobs we hated, raising two lovebale-yet-annoying dogs and just trying to breathe.

Quite honestly, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.  

Along the way, we both had picked up horrible coping skills, had past unresolved wounds, and sucked at communicating. 

When I look back at how much we’ve grown as people, as a couple, I get all sappy.

It’s not always easy in a relationship, in a marriage and it wasn’t huge changes that got us to feeling more loved and connected. It was the grind of everyday life, incorporating small changes consistently, talking about past issues, learning to see things from each other’s point of view, learning about our partner wounds and not pouring the salt in the wound (as tempting as it when you’re mad). 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not perfect. My husband isn’t perfect. You’re not perfect. Your partner isn’t perfect.
Relationships aren’t perfect.

And now onto the clinical stuff. 

As a both a human and a therapist, I love learning new things. In addition to my master’s degree training in Marriage and Family therapy, I’m on the road to further my education in The Gottman Method. 

I’ve completed Level 1 and Level 2 which has helped me, help couples in how to do things differently. 

How to talk different. 
How to listen different. 
How to express care different. 
How to express needs different. 
How to do relationships different.

My favorite thing about the Gottman Method is that it doesn’t make us fit into the mold of what couples “should be”. It provides the framework for healthy interactions and allows couples to be their unique, vibrant, quirky, weird selves and live life in their own way.

Here are my kiddos.