About Maria
Maria Ward is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 13 years of clinical experience in California. She focuses on helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, mood shifts, addiction, or grief. She also supports those coping with relationship struggles, parenting challenges, and attention-related concerns such as ADHD.
Her style is collaborative and straightforward. Sessions are a place to talk through what is happening now, identify what matters most, and practice small changes that improve day-to-day life.
Background and approach
She emphasizes the client’s own knowledge of their story and builds on existing strengths. Maria uses several practical approaches to guide sessions. She draws from cognitive behavioral tools to spot unhelpful thinking and to shift behavior.
She also incorporates client-centered listening so people feel heard and understood as they weigh options. Attachment-focused ideas help when relationships and connection are central to the struggle. She uses these to unpack patterns that show up with partners, caregivers, or close friends.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy methods are used to clarify values and take manageable action even when feelings are difficult. Maria offers therapy in English and Spanish and works with a wide range of concerns, including trauma-related issues. She aims to make the process clear and practical, helping people set realistic goals and track small wins as they move forward.
How Maria’s approaches translate to online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps you get clear on what matters and take small steps toward those values even when emotions are uncomfortable. It’s useful for worry, low motivation, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at unhelpful thoughts and patterns and introduces practical exercises to change thinking and behavior, which helps with anxiety, mood shifts, and addictive actions.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with you about your goals and try methods that fit your needs. That process is collaborative and can shift as you learn what helps most in sessions.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is good for a face-to-face feel and fuller conversation. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or you prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging work well for brief check-ins, homework support, or scheduling quick coaching-style guidance. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into busy lives and to keep momentum between appointments.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she help with?
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What are her credentials and where is she located?
Can I work with her if I don’t speak English?
Which session formats are available?
How are sessions paid for and what do they cost?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also listed
- 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
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