Finding steady
ground, again.
Mara Makasiar, PhD — Psychologist for lives shaped by serious illness
Living with a serious medical condition changes more than your health. It changes how you work, who you rely on, and what you thought your life would look like. This is a telehealth practice for people managing that, for the families going through it with them, and for the clinicians who work inside it every day.
Resilience isn’t a straight line — it’s how we find our way back to steady.
Illness has its own timeline.
Dr. Makasiar earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Marquette University, then trained in pediatric and congenital medical settings through both her internship and fellowship at Dell Medical School and Dell Children’s Medical Center, working alongside medical teams the whole way through. That training shaped how she thinks about illness: a diagnosis doesn’t happen once and stay the same. It changes as you do. What a condition asks of a seven-year-old is not what it asks of that same person at twenty-five, and something you’ve managed since your twenties can feel like a different illness entirely by your forties.
She also knows how much of the burden lives outside the exam room. Scheduling around specialists, repeating your history to yet another new provider, tracking what changed since the last visit — the logistics of care take energy, and over time they can crowd out everything else. With Dr. Makasiar, that load is treated as part of the clinical picture, not something you’re expected to manage quietly on your own.
Her focus is on the moments when things feel unsteady — a new diagnosis, a relapse, a change in treatment, a milestone that suddenly looks different than you expected. She is dedicated to helping you put that experience back together with the rest of who you are, rather than carrying it as something separate.
The medical side of things is considered alongside your mood, your relationships, and your day-to-day life — not set off in its own category. That includes practical support with things like staying on top of medications and treatment plans, along with the process of adjusting and building resilience.
You set the pace.
You set the direction. Dr. Makasiar brings her training and full attention to help you work through what’s making things feel harder to hold onto, reconnect with what steadiness means for you, and build toward actually thriving, not just surviving. Whatever brings you in — anxiety, stress, a strained relationship, a stretch of life that’s been heavier than it should be — the direction is yours to set, and the pace follows you.
Credentials
- License
- Licensed Psychologist, Texas #40982
- PhD, Clinical Psychology
- Marquette University
- Internship
- Dell Medical School / Dell Children’s Medical Center
- Fellowship
- Dell Medical School / Dell Children’s Medical Center
- Clinical Experience
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- Cardiac intensive care unit
- Cardiology
- Pediatric and adult congenital heart disease
- Pediatric oncology and oncology survivorship
- Hematology
- Neurology
- Pediatric intensive care unit
- Traumatic stress
Whatever brought you here deserves undivided attention.
Some people come here because of a diagnosis. Others because of what a diagnosis has done to someone they love, or because of what they see at work every day. Illness looks different depending on where you’re standing.
Living With It
The appointments keep coming, and so does the rest of your life.
Maybe the diagnosis is recent and you are still absorbing it. Maybe you have managed the same condition so long that it has become background noise. Or maybe nobody has named what is happening yet, and you are exhausted from being told the tests look fine. Whatever the situation, the condition is rarely the only thing that needs attention. It touches your work, your relationships, the plans you had made, and your sense of who you were before it started. Dr. Makasiar treats all of it as part of the same picture.
Growing Up With It
You have never known life without it.
Maybe there were surgeries you were too young to remember, and a body you have been negotiating with since before you had words for it. Maybe you moved from the pediatric clinic where everyone knew your history into an adult one where nobody does. Or maybe you are years past treatment and still find that it shapes how you date, how you work, and what you let yourself plan for. Growing up inside the medical system asks something specific of a person, and it does not stop asking once you are an adult. Dr. Makasiar works on what the condition means now, and on building a life that is fuller than managing it.
Beside It
Taking care of yourself is part of taking care of them.
This is therapy for you. Caring for someone who is seriously ill reshapes your days, your relationships, and what you thought your own life was going to look like, and that rarely gets attention of its own. Many people in this position feel they cannot spare the hour, as though time spent on themselves is taken from the person they are caring for. Dr. Makasiar has worked alongside families through the hardest stretches of a loved one’s care, and treats the person doing the caring as someone who needs care too.
Inside It
You are the one everyone else relies on.
Maybe what you saw on shift followed you home. Maybe holding steady for everyone else has left you without anywhere to be honest about how you are doing. Or maybe the usual advice about work stress has never quite fit a job where the stakes are what they are. Working in medicine asks something of a person that is difficult to explain to anyone outside it. Dr. Makasiar spent years embedded in hospital teams, in the cardiac ICU, the PICU, and on oncology and neurology services, so the setting will not need explaining.
Fostering resilience built on what you already have.
Resilience is treated as an active, ongoing process — something built and rebuilt through change — not a fixed trait you either have or don’t.
The relationship comes first
Above any specific method, this is collaborative work built around your pace and what matters most to you.
At home in the medical world
Dr. Makasiar spent years providing care embedded within hospital medical teams. She’s comfortable coordinating with your physicians, understanding the clinical context, and helping you prepare for the appointments that matter.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Changing the thoughts and patterns that shape how you feel, one small step at a time.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Figuring out what matters most to you, and using that as a compass to build a life guided by it.
A developmental lens throughout
Illness and your own life stage are always shaping each other, and treatment has to account for that.
Nothing here is one-size-fits-all
The approach is shaped around what you actually need.
A note on fees and insurance.
Dr. Makasiar is in-network with Aetna, Cigna, BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, and Carelon. For all other plans, sessions are private pay, with payment collected at the time of each session.
In-Network Insurance
Dr. Makasiar accepts Aetna, Cigna, BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, and Carelon. Your cost per session depends on your plan’s copay or coinsurance, and it’s worth verifying your telehealth mental health benefits before your first appointment.
Private Pay
$185 per 50-minute session. If your plan includes out-of-network benefits, you may be able to get partially reimbursed. Dr. Makasiar will provide a superbill on request that you can submit directly to your insurer. Reimbursement amounts depend entirely on your specific plan, so it’s worth calling your insurer to ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits.
Good Faith Estimate
Under the No Surprises Act, you have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before your first appointment if you are uninsured or self-pay.
Reach out to get started.
The simplest way to get started is through Dr. Makasiar’s Alma profile, where you can book a free 15-minute consultation, share a bit about what brings you in, and check what a session would cost with your insurance. If you’d rather reach out with a question first, email and phone contact are available through her Psychology Today profile, and she’ll follow up personally.
Contact
Book a free consultation