Hi, I'm Maria...

It's nice to meet you! I'm a psychotherapist, circle holder, and advanced clinical hypnotherapist. 

At one point in my life, I was humpty dumtpy. That's how I got into the work I do, through my own journey of learning to put myself back together again. I discovered that I had had no idea what or where my true self was. I facilitate the work of uncovery to help you uncover your true self, heal and thrive instead of simply surviving!

A little about my own struggles with weight and my relationship to food.

 I grew up in sunny San Diego, just minutes from the ocean. From the time I was very young I felt something wasn't right. I always had this knowing. I spent a lot of time at the beach in Del Mar, CA. On the surface, my life looked idyllic. But beneath that facade was something much harder to name as a young girl: the quiet pressure to be beautiful, thin, effortless — to fit into a very narrow mold of what it meant to be “acceptable” in a bikini-clad culture that saw girls more than it knew them. I was also being abused.

​Like so many, I internalized those messages and experiences. They shaped how I saw myself, how I related to myself, to life, to food, my body, and ultimately, my worth. I developed a complicated relationship with eating, control, and perfection — all brilliant coping strategies at the time, rooted in the deep human need for safety, connection, and belonging. I didn't know it then, but I was adapting to a world that asked me to disconnect from my true self in order to survive.

Over the years, life invited me deeper into myself — often through struggle. I’ve faced trauma, disordered eating, immense loss, and all the ache that comes from trying to be human in a world that doesn’t always make space for our wholeness. And yet, each experience — even the painful ones — carried within it a seed of healing, a whisper to return home to myself.

Eventually, I answered that call. I did many years of my own deep healing work.
I earned my Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I became trained in modalities that helped me understand not only what I’d lived through, but how to transform it — EMDR, Schema Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, DBT, Ego State Therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches. Each one gave me tools not only to heal, but to guide others through their own healing with compassion and integrity.

Today, I’m a psychotherapist, trauma specialist, and soul-centered clinician — but more than anything, I’m a fellow traveler. I believe healing isn’t about “fixing” ourselves. It’s about remembering who we are underneath the layers we had to develop to survive.
It’s hard to be human. We all carry wounds, protective parts, unmet needs, and longings we’re sometimes afraid to name. And yet, I also know this: every single one of us has the capacity to heal, reconnect, and live from a place of authenticity and inner trust.
My work — and my life — is dedicated to that journey.

I would be honored to walk beside you.
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