About Maria
Maria Clara Salazar-Pretto is a licensed clinical social worker with twenty years of practice. She speaks English and Spanish and helps people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, parenting strain, relationship and intimacy problems, and other life changes. She works with people across different ages and backgrounds and is based in Florida.
She focuses on straightforward, practical work in sessions. Maria Clara uses a client-centered approach that invites people to set their own goals.
Background and approach
She draws on cognitive behavioral ideas to spot unhelpful thinking and teaches skills for coping with strong emotions. She also uses solution-focused methods to build steps that feel doable in daily life. Her background includes work in hospitals, health centers, and personal agencies.
She holds a Master’s degree in social work from California State University, Fresno and an undergraduate degree in clinical psychology. Her license is Florida LCSW SW7853. Maria Clara frames therapy as collaborative and practical.
She listens, reflects, and offers tools for regulating emotions, improving communication, and managing stress. Sessions aim to break problems into small, manageable steps and to find what works for each person. Sessions are available in English and Spanish, and she accepts international clients.
The tone in her work is warm and nonjudgmental, with a focus on helping people build clearer routines, steady coping skills, and healthier day-to-day patterns.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Client-centered therapy focuses on what matters most to the person. It begins by listening and helping clients set goals they care about, making sessions practical and focused on change. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, examines patterns of thinking and behavior and teaches simple skills to cope with anxiety, low mood, and stressful situations. Solution-focused therapy zeroes in on small, concrete steps and quick experiments that can lead to noticeable improvements in daily life.Finding the right approach is part of the process. Maria Clara will work together with each person to decide which methods fit their needs and preferences. Sessions can blend approaches so that goals, coping skills, and short-term plans line up with what the person wants to accomplish.
Online therapy offers flexibility and helps people fit care into busy lives. Video calls let therapists observe expressions and body language. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier during a hectic day. Live chat and text-based messaging allow for quick check-ins, shorter coaching moments, and ongoing reminders between visits. These options make it easier to maintain consistency and practice new skills in real time.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does she help with?
How would you describe her therapy style?
What is her professional background?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages are supported and can she work with people abroad?
What session formats are offered?
How does payment and cost work?
What are the steps to begin therapy?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English, Spanish