Maria Gimenez-Cruz

Maria Gimenez-Cruz is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing major life changes and everyday stressors. She focuses on practical support for anxiety, depression, grief, parenting strain, sleep difficulties, and coping with transitions. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish and are grounded in a respectful, down-to-earth style.

Maria draws on nine years of experience as an LCSW working with people who have faced trauma, abandonment, immigration challenges, and compassion fatigue. She starts by learning what matters most to each person and looks for strengths that can be built on right away. Conversations are collaborative and goal-focused, with tools you can try between sessions.

Her approach mixes client-centered listening with cognitive-behavioral techniques and mindfulness practices. This combination helps people notice unhelpful thinking, build new routines, and reduce reactivity to stress. Maria also uses narrative and motivational strategies to help clarify values and next steps when life feels uncertain.

In a session she will listen, name patterns that get in the way, and practice small skills together. Expect concrete techniques for sleep, anger, and anxiety, along with support around relationship strain, parenting challenges, and recovering from loss. The goal is gradual, usable change rather than quick fixes.

To begin, clients use the site Start Therapy button to complete a short matching questionnaire and then schedule according to therapist availability. Costs vary with location and the service uses a subscription that can be canceled at any time.

How therapeutic approaches guide online work

Maria uses client-centered therapy to begin: she listens closely and follows what matters most to each person. This approach helps people feel heard and sets the direction for practical work on stress, relationships, and life transitions.

She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing small behavior changes. CBT is useful for anxiety, sleep problems, low mood, and managing anger by breaking problems into manageable steps.

Finding the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will review goals and preferences with each person, try different tools, and adjust plans as progress is made. Clients are invited to give feedback so the work fits their life and needs.

Session formats are not detailed in the biography, so please confirm current options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into work days, reduce travel time, and allow shorter touch-base meetings when needed. It can also let people try techniques in their everyday routines and bring problems that happened earlier in the day into the session for immediate discussion.