About Me: Your guide to Healing and Authentic Living

Hi, I'm Maria.

I know how hard it is to find the right trauma therapist. My journey has been much like yours: one of deep healing, growth, and eventually finding myself amidst the messiness. I have sat in your seat, experiencing the hopelessness of surviving while quietly falling apart, even as the outside world saw someone thriving.

This personal journey led me to specialize in helping women like you: high-achieving, successful individuals who have quietly endured childhood trauma, toxic relationships, and deep emotional neglect. You’re often described as "strong" or "put together," the friend everyone leans on. You are used to surviving, to holding everything together for your family and your job, even when no one sees the immense cost to you. If you grew up needing to earn love by being perfect, if your safety depended on keeping others happy, and if you are exhausted from performing a version of yourself that is not quite real... you are in the right place.

I understand the nuances of this journey on a deeply personal level. Healing from emotional and psychological abuse, particularly narcissistic abuse recovery, has been one of the hardest things for me to navigate. It was a deep cut to my own psyche. Growing up with it, I intimately knew the patterns, how it drew me in, and the acute level of betrayal I experienced. I felt I was losing my mind. You blame yourself, until one day, you find yourself in a therapy room creating a space letting learn how to save yourself. It’s my story, and why I’m so passionate about guiding others through their own healing as an intuitive trauma therapist.

Why I Do This Work: Healing What Was Hidden

My passion for this work stems from a deep belief that healing from trauma should happen in a space designed to feel safe enough to fall apart. Trauma hides behind high performance. The intelligent, capable, and deeply self-aware women I work with have often had their pain minimized or ignored, so they have learned to minimize it too.

They have been told they’re “fine” because they are functioning. They have survived by staying busy, staying sharp, and staying quiet about what really happened. But surviving is not the same as healing, and deep down, you know that white knuckling your way through life cannot be the whole story.

I became a therapist because I know you don’t need fixed; you were never broken. You adapted to impossible things. Now it is time to heal, slowly and safely, in a space where all parts of you are welcome. You do not have to perform. You do not have to make it make sense. And you do not have to protect me from your pain. I am here for the parts of you that never got to be fully seen, the ones still waiting to exhale.

You’ve carried enough. Let’s lighten the load.

The very foundation of the relationship we build together is key, as much of our work focuses on repairing the damage from narcissistic abuse, betrayal trauma, childhood trauma, and attachment wounds. My approach is rooted in creating safety—something many individuals never consistently experienced with caregivers in childhood. This is not just about physical safety; it is about building an internal and relational sense of security that allows your nervous system to finally relax.

I focus on the Four S's as a cornerstone to developing a secure attachment in our relationship:

  • Seen: Feeling truly understood and validated, knowing your pain is believed, not minimized or judged.

  • Safe: Experiencing genuine security in our therapeutic space, allowing you to let your guard down.

  • Soothing: Learning how to regulate intense emotions and find calm within yourself and with support.

  • Security: Building an internal sense of unwavering safety and belonging, finally feeling at home in your own body.

This equation—Seen + Safe + Soothing = Security—is fundamental to our work. You will learn to increase your window of tolerance for uncomfortable emotions, guided to feel confident experiencing feelings you would typically suppress or ignore. You will discover how to stay connected when big feelings arises, learning to co-regulate with me as a pathway to mastering self-regulation. This empowers you to prevent overwhelm, shutting down, or reactive patterns that invoke guilt and shame spirals.

I also place a big emphasis on reorganizing the nervous system. Many therapies bypass sensations to go right to grounding. However, the magic is in learning to be in the discomfort and how to move through it. This allows you to go out into the world trusting yourself to handle what comes up.

Shock trauma, in particular, can leave lightning fast imprints. I utilize different techniques to slow down and hold you in deep compassion, helping you to reorganize your nervous system and move through emotions and sensations. I pair polyvagal elements with EMDR therapy and IFS therapy for this work.

Not every modality is the right fit for everyone, despite the hype of trending trauma techniques you see on social media. Together, we uncover what works best for your body, mind, and soul. My approach is a highly intuitive style, moving you through a variety of techniques seamlessly. The goal is for you to be equipped in ways to help your nervous system, have strong boundaries, and feel empowered to trust your body when it says no.

We will navigate common negative beliefs stemming from trauma ("I do not matter," "I am worthless," "I am unlovable") and work towards cultivating adaptive, empowering beliefs ("I am capable," "I am confident," "I am okay," "I got through it," "I am alive").

  • Practicing for over 16 years

  • Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, Waynesburg University

  • Master’s Degree in Education, University of Pittsburgh

  • Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania (PA) and Montana (MT)

  • Telehealth Therapist in Florida and South Carolina and Vermont

  • Membership with EMDRIA

  • EMDR Certified

  • EMDR Consultant in Training

  • Psychology Today Profile

  • Therapy Den Profile

My Credentials:

Specialized Approaches and Modalities:

  • Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

  • Somatic Approaches

  • Walk & Talk Therapy

  • Ask me about how I implement Tarot and Oracle cards into sessions for different modalities.

  • Trauma Therapy Intensive

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Helping high achieving woman overcoming complex trauma. How do I overcome complex trauma? Who is a great therapist who works with trauma?

Meet the Office Manager

I love to share about my dog, Bella. She has a tail that doesn’t stop wagging and is one of the happiest dogs I have ever had the honor of knowing. She embodies joy and owns it. She has taught me so much about resiliency, boundaries, and that it’s ok to be wildly authentic. She likes to show her face in sessions sometimes. We have adventures and misadventures, always ready to take a chance on something new to see where it takes us. Sometimes, dogs really have an incredible way of showing us how to live in the present.