Marcene Marcus, LCSW, is our passionate Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, with over 3 decades of mental health fieldwork serving populations from early childhood to older adulthood.  Her academic journey began at UC Santa Barbara, where she obtained her BA & headed a stress peer counselor team. She then studied Gerontology at USC & served as a teaching assistant. Her Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work was earned at Columbia University, where she also had a rare opportunity to complete a law minor.

She is grateful to play a pivotal role in shaping Ocean Psychiatry’s strategic vision & operational excellence.  She oversees clinical training, ensures adherence to best practices (encouraging evidenced based techniques), & drives initiatives that enhance the quality of care for both clients & associate clinicians under her supervision. Her leadership style maintains integrity through creative innovations & compassionate care, while prioritizing cutting-edge education for staff. 

This Clinical Director’s experience spans a diverse spectrum of settings including: pre-schools, non-profits, residential treatment, medical offices, insurance companies, and college counseling centers. Her unifying approach combines a psychodynamic framework with an emphasis on developing powerful therapeutic alliances. Marcene's main areas of clinical specialty are:  resistance & blocks in therapy, reparenting the self, positive parenting & co-parenting, infertility, adoption, divorce, relationship repair, trauma recovery, grief & loss healing, narrative therapy, art therapy, career & wellness optimization.

Marcene contributes to advancing the field through innovations such as: Conceiving Victory Inc., a private practice she founded assisting individuals, couples, & families in overcoming life's challenges; co-creating a Network of Psychotherapy Professionals for regular clinical consultation to promote ethics & best practices; & most recently launching Ocean Psychiatry’s own Associate Training Program to nurture the growth of master-level clinicians as they pursue licensure. In her downtime, she loves music, painting, writing, reading, swimming, playing fetch with her dogs and old-fashioned card or board games.