Welcome Mariia Shurkhal, MFT Trainee
CFI welcomes Mariia Shurkhal to our clinical team. After more than a decade as a tech product manager, Mariia brings a warm, collaborative, narrative-informed approach — and a deep curiosity for the stories that shape our lives — to her work with clients.
By California Family Institute
A New Voice on Our Clinical Team
We're excited to welcome Mariia Shurkhal to the California Family Institute as an MFT Trainee. Mariia brings a warm, collaborative presence and a genuine curiosity about the stories that shape our lives — and we're glad to have her on the team.
Mariia came to therapy by way of an unexpected path. After earning an MS in Computer Science and spending over a decade as a product manager in the tech industry — helping people and organizations navigate complexity — she is now completing her graduate studies in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University. That background gives her a distinctive lens on how people make sense of change, uncertainty, and the systems they live within.
Her Approach
Mariia's work is collaborative and narrative-informed. She meets clients with warmth and genuine curiosity, treating each person as the expert on their own experience and holding space for new possibilities to emerge.
I work with clients to explore the stories that shape their lives, holding space for new possibilities to emerge when those stories are examined with curiosity and care.
Whether someone is navigating a transition, a relationship, or a season of uncertainty, Mariia honors their lived experience and walks alongside them as they imagine what's next.
Get to Know Mariia
Outside of the therapy room, Mariia has a love for improv — which she finds surprisingly therapeutic — and for the kind of meaningful conversations that shift how we see things. She speaks English, Ukrainian, and Russian, and brings that same openness and adaptability into her work with clients.
To learn more or schedule a session with Mariia, visit her therapist profile.