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: successful individuals, hyper independent, driven, deep survival patterns designed to mask what was quietly endured with 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 homeless in my body and like I was failing in being my own person; failing at how to live. You blame yourself, until one day, you find yourself in a therapy room creating a space to just be. Learning how to give yourself permission 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’ve had therapy experiences which were traumatizing. I get it. We work through the pain of the past betrayals in relationships we were supposed to feel safe in. Even a well intentioned therapist doesn’t mean they’ve done their own deep work or have awareness of attuning and being present to allow the nervous system to learn a new way.
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.
They have trauma related dissociative disorders. How I work with dissociation is different. Time and space are key with a deep understanding that dissociation is a fiercely protective part to shut out the world when it is too much. The body feels like it is betraying you when all it is doing is attempting to do what it knows best in its own way; to protect from overwhelm. Many people don’t know how to cope when someone dissociates and instead of slowing down to be a steady presence, the opposite happens. I am trained to work a variety of dissociation and know how to be with you and help you find your way back to the present. You learn to feel at home in your body and have a greater awareness of how your nervous system and brain stem operate to keep you safe, even if the threat is from the past and the triggers are in the present, pushing on the raw, unhealed wounds.
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.
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, DBR, ISSTD
EMDR Certified
EMDR Consultant in Training
DBR L3 trained, DBR-P in progress
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), L3 trained
Somatic Approaches
Walk & Talk Therapy
Ask me about how I implement Tarot and Oracle cards into sessions for different modalities.
Trauma Therapy Intensive
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.