About Maria
Maria Rivera is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in North Carolina with 15 years of practical experience. She focuses on stress, anxiety, addiction concerns, relationship struggles, and trauma. Maria offers straightforward support and helps people find steady ways to cope and move forward.
She centers sessions on the person in front of her and treats clients as the expert on their own life. Conversations aim to identify strengths and build small, doable steps toward goals.
Background and approach
Sessions are calm, direct, and focused on what a client wants to change. Maria uses methods that include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These approaches help people notice unhelpful thoughts, clarify values, and practice new behaviors.
Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused techniques are also part of her toolbox when people need focused momentum. Her areas of focus include grief, parenting concerns, eating issues, bipolar and depressive symptoms, ADHD, anger, and coping with life changes. She also addresses attachment, adoption and foster care concerns, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and communication problems.
The work often combines short-term problem solving with longer-term emotional work. Maria aims to make starting therapy less stressful. She invites people to talk through immediate needs and set practical next steps.
Her style is collaborative and rooted in real-life solutions.
Practical therapy approaches for online care
Maria often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify what matters to them and take small actions in line with their values. ACT focuses on accepting difficult feelings while moving toward meaningful goals, which can help with anxiety, depression, and life transitions.She also integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot and shift unhelpful thoughts and to build new coping habits. CBT is useful for anxiety, mood concerns, and patterns that keep people stuck. Client-Centered Therapy is part of her approach too, offering a supportive space where the client’s perspective guides the work.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped before. Together they adapt methods so the work fits the client’s life and moves at a comfortable pace.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people work face-to-face from wherever they are. Phone sessions can be a good option when video is not possible or when less bandwidth is needed. Live chat and text messaging are helpful for quick check-ins, processing between sessions, and maintaining momentum on busy days.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does Maria help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she bring?
Where is she licensed and how is that shown?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
What session formats are available?
How are fees and billing handled?
How do I begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- 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
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina
- Languages
- English