Mariana K. Falconier
Director, Couple and Family Therapy Master's Program
Dr. Mariana Falconier completed her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) and her doctoral degree in Family Studies at the University of Maryland. Previously, Dr. Falconier was an associate professor at the Virginia Tech MFT master’s program. Her research focuses on couple’s stress and coping particularly, economic stress and immigration stress in Latinx couples. She developed TOGETHER, a couples’ program integrating relationship and financial education and federally funded for over $11 million.
Departments/Units
- Department of Family Science
- Center for Healthy Families
Areas of Interest
Core FacultyCouples' Stress; Couples' Coping; Economic Stress; Latinx Couples; Program Development and Evaluation
Dr. Mariana Falconier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She completed her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) and her doctoral degree in Family Studies at the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Before joining the University of Maryland, she was an Associate Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, serving first as Director of the Center for Family Services (2008-2016), and later, as Director of the Master's Program in Marriage and Family Therapy (2017-2018).
Dr. Falconier, originally from Argentina, began her work as a therapist with individuals, couples, and families in 1992. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist in both states Maryland and Virginia and has been an approved supervisor by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy since 2007. Dr. Falconier was also director of outpatient mental health clinics at WATS and Vesta, Inc. before joining Virginia Tech.
She has taught in five different universities undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural and diversity issues in MFT, couple therapy, MFT theories and techniques, particularly post-modern approaches, and developmental psychology. Her research focuses on how couples cope with stress, primarily economic stress among low-income couples and immigration stress in Latinx couples.
She has developed the evidence-based program TOGETHER, an interdisciplinary group program designed to help couples improve their communication, coping and financial management skills. Dr. Falconier has received over $11 million dollars in federal funding to implement the TOGETHER program and initially to evaluate it in a randomized controlled trial.
Dr. Falconier has published and presented nationally and internationally and is the leading editor of the book Couples Coping with Stress: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, recipient of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award
PhD, Family Studies, Department of Family Studies, 2005
University of Maryland, College Park
MS, Marriage and Family Therapy, Department of Family Studies, 2002
University of Maryland, College Park
National Professor of English, Superior National Institute of Professorship Dr. J. V. Gonzalez, 1994
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Licentiate in Psychology (equivalent to MA in Psychology),
School of Psychology, 1992
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
FMSC 745 Gender and Ethnicity Issues in Family Service Delivery
FMSC 641 Couple Therapy
FMSC 658 Supervised Clinical Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy
Falconier, M. K., & Jackson, J. (2020). Economic strain and couple relationship functioning: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Stress Management.
Falconier, M. K., & Khun, R. (2019). Dyadic coping in couples: A conceptual integration and review of the clinical literature. Frontiers in Psychology.
Falconier, M. K., Rusu, P., & Bodenmann, G. (2019). Initial Validation of the Dyadic Coping Inventory for Financial Stress. Stress & Health, 35, 367-381.
Escobar, J., Falconier, M. K., & Muruthi, B. (2019). “Se llevaron al padre de mis hijos”: Latina mothers coping with the deportation of their partners. Journal of Family Therapy, 41, 277-301.
Arshad, Z., & Falconier, M. K. (2018). The experiences of non-Muslin Caucasian licensed marriage and family therapists who work with South Asian and Middle Eastern Muslin clients. Journal of Family Therapy, 41, 54-79.
Rusu, P. P., Hilpert, P., Falconier, M., & Bodenmann (2018). How economic strain affects support in couples: The mediating role of positive emotions. Stress and Health, 34, 320-330.
Rick, J.*, Falconier, M. K., & Wittenborn, A. (2017). Emotion regulation and relationship satisfaction in clinical couples. Personal Relationships, 24, 790-803.
Falconier, M. K., Huerta*, M., & Hendrickson, E. (2016). Immigration Stress, Exposure to Traumatic Life Experiences, and Problem Drinking Among First-Generation Immigrant Latino Couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33, 469-492.
Falconier, M. K., Jackson, J., Hilpert, J., & Bodenmann, G. (2015). Dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 42, 28-46.
Regan, T. W., Lambert, S. D., Kelly, B., Falconier, M. K., Kissane, D., & Levesque, J. (2015). Couples coping with cancer: Exploration of theoretical frameworks from dyadic studies. Psycho-Oncology, 24, 1605-1617.
Falconier, M.K. (2015). Together – A Couples’ Program to Improve Communication, Coping, and == Financial Management Skills: Development and Initial Pilot-Testing. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 41, 236-250.