About Maria
Maria Ward greets people who are worn out, overwhelmed, or unsure where to begin. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 13 years of experience based in California.
Background and approach
Maria speaks English and Spanish and aims to make first steps feel manageable for anyone reaching out. She focuses on everyday struggles like stress, anxiety, depression, anger, and relationship strain.
She also helps people facing trauma and abuse, addiction, grief, and the ups and downs of parenting and career changes. Her approach centers on listening first and building practical tools together.
In sessions Maria uses clear, hands-on methods drawn from cognitive behavioral techniques and emotion-focused work. She also draws on acceptance and commitment ideas to help people notice what matters and act on it.
Attachment-based ideas inform how she talks about patterns that repeat in close relationships. Maria believes clients are the experts on their own stories.
She offers guidance, skill practice, and steady support while clients try new ways of coping and relating. Many people come for help with communication problems, codependency, body image, or managing mood shifts like bipolar symptoms.
Her practice includes flexible online formats and multiway communication styles for busy lives. Maria encourages straightforward goals and regular check-ins so progress is clear and adjustments are simple.
Therapeutic approaches and how they translate online
Maria blends cognitive behavioral ideas with acceptance and commitment work to help people shift unhelpful patterns and build workable routines. CBT focuses on spotting thoughts and testing them against real-life outcomes to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify values, accept difficult feelings, and take small committed actions toward meaningful goals.She also uses attachment-based perspectives to look at repeating relationship patterns and increase emotional connection and trust in relationships. That work can help with communication problems, intimacy issues, and patterns that show up again and again with partners or close people. Finding the right mix is a collaborative process - the therapist will check in about goals, try an approach, and adjust strategies based on what feels helpful to the client.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to suit different needs. Video calls are useful for full conversations and role-play practice. Phone sessions can be a better fit when bandwidth is limited or a quieter connection is needed. Live chat and messaging work well for brief check-ins, homework support, and ongoing encouragement between sessions. These options make scheduling easier and let people continue work even during busy life changes.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 13 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English, Spanish