The Mill Valley Public Library presents Writing for Relationships: a special panel discussion of local authors who write about love and healthy relationships. The panel features authors Vicki Larson, Debbie Weiss, and Marcia Naomi Berger and is moderated by local couples therapist Jennifer Lanciault. 

Vicki Larson is a longtime award-winning Bay Area journalist and the former lifestyles editor, writer and columnist at the Marin Independent Journal whose writing can be found in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post and Newsweek among numerous other publications. She specializes in writing about living and loving outside conventional models of coupling and the nuclear family as well as busting ageist and sexist narratives about aging as a woman and women’s sexuality and desire. A Mill Valley resident for nearly four decades, she is the author of LATitude: How You Can Make a Live Apart Together Relationship Work, Not Too Old for That: How Women are Changing the Story of Aging, named a Best Book of 2022 by Take the Lead, and co-author of The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels, named a Best Book of 2014 by PopSugar. Photo by Kim Thompson Steel.

Debbie Weiss is the author of the award-winning memoir Available As Is: A Midlife Widow's Search for Love about creating a new life and finding hope after widowhood. Her writing has been published in The New York Times' "Modern Love" column, Huffington Post and Woman's Day among other publications. A former lawyer, she's proudest of earning her MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary's College of California in 2020.

Marcia Naomi Berger is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist with a private practice in San Rafael, California. She is the author of two relationship books: Marriage Minded: An A to Z Dating Guide for Lasting Love and Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted. Her new book is a memoir called The Bipolar Therapist: A Journey from Madness to Love and Meaning.

Naomi held senior-level positions in child welfare, alcoholism treatment, and psychiatry. She also served as a lecturer on the clinical faculty at the University of California School of Medicine and as executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay. Naomi aims to help people create lasting, fulfilling marriages and other satisfying relationships. She lives in San Rafael with her husband of 36 years, David Berger. Photo by Patty Spinks.

Jennifer Lanciault is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist  with Marin Wellness Counseling. She earned her Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Dominican University, her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, and her Bachelor’s in French Literature from the University of Washington. Jennifer currently directs a CARE Team at Dominican University of California and previously worked as a school counselor in university and high school settings and has served on Marin County’s Suicide Hotline. Prior to raising her children, Jennifer enjoyed a career in management consulting, specializing in change management, program management and project management.