Maria Rivera
Practical, values-driven therapy for everyday challenges
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed in
- North Carolina
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Maria
Maria Rivera is a licensed clinical social worker who uses practical, down-to-earth therapy to help people move past hard moments. She centers sessions on the person in front of her and helps clients notice strengths they already have. Her style is straightforward and respectful, aimed at real change rather than jargon.
With 15 years of experience in North Carolina, Maria draws on several approaches to match each person's needs. She uses techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify values and take committed action.
Background and approach
She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify troubling thoughts and change unhelpful patterns. Clients come for many concerns, such as stress, anxiety, addiction, relationship trouble, trauma and abuse, anger, grief, eating issues, and parenting worries. Maria also addresses mood conditions like depression and bipolar, along with challenges such as ADHD and self-esteem.
She attends to related areas like attachment problems, blended family issues, and caregiver stress. Sessions are practical and goal focused. Conversations typically include identifying what matters to the client, building small skills, and trying different strategies between visits.
Maria respects each person's pace and works collaboratively to find what helps. Beginning therapy can feel risky. Maria aims to make the first steps clear and manageable, offering a steady presence while clients practice new ways of coping and relating.
Therapeutic approaches that translate to online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people name what matters to them and take small, meaningful steps toward those values. It is useful for stress, anxiety, and life changes where motivation and direction are needed. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches practical strategies for changing unhelpful patterns; it is often helpful for anxiety, depression, and mood problems. Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's experience and builds a trusting relationship through empathic listening and respect, which supports work on crises, grief, and relationship struggles.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Maria treats therapy as a collaborative process and will help figure out which methods fit a person's needs, goals, and preferences. She adapts tools from these approaches so clients can try techniques and see what helps in real life.
Online sessions in her practice include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy days and to keep steady momentum between visits. The range of formats helps people access care from home or other convenient places while working on the goals they set with their therapist.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
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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
Next step
Talk to Maria
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point