Ioana B Marcus

Psychotherapist & Founder, Equibliss Psychotherapy

Dr. Ioana Marcus started her curiosity about the human body and mind in Romania where she attended medical school. When she moved to the United States, she continued refining her passion and academic/ professional interests by pursuing counseling as a career. As an immigrant, she always supported the unconventional and the underdog, as well as exploring the least familiar paths for healing.

She has worked with clients with eating disorders, trauma and mood disorders for two decades, and taught graduate courses for over a decade. She became passionate about inviting animals, particularly horses and dogs, into the healing process, and pursued several post-doctoral certfications in equine facilitated psychotherapy and animal assisted play therapy, as well as EMDR and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR). When she founded Equibliss Psychotherapy in 2013, she kept searching for modalities to better serve her clients in addressing the underlying issues in their journeys, such as trauma and eating disorders.

In continuing to pursue equitability, social justice, and returning the gift of working with animals to communities with less access to them, Ioana founded the HEART Space Fund serving immigrants, refugees and foster care families in their journeys to wellbeing and thriving.

Lastly, Ioana has committed to the same ardous passion to trauma-informed and ethical practices in training and rehabilitating horses and rescue dogs, all of whom are very intentional partners in therapy. She has presented on Gestalt equine facilitated psychotherapy, ethical practices in working with horses in equine facilitated services and beyond.