About Macarena
Macarena Santelices is a licensed clinician with an MD and counseling licenses. She brings 14 years of professional experience to sessions in California. Her work centers on helping people manage stress and anxiety.
She also supports those coping with relationship strain, low self-esteem, and life changes. She starts by listening to each person’s story and identifying practical goals together. Sessions focus on clear steps you can try between meetings.
Macarena uses tools from cognitive behavioral work and mindfulness to address unhelpful thoughts and reduce worry.
Background and approach
When emotions run high, she offers skills drawn from dialectical behavior therapy to help people regulate intense feelings and reduce impulsive reactions. She also helps people address attachment concerns, feelings of abandonment, and guilt or shame that get in the way of daily life.
Her practice includes attention to physical health concerns when they affect mood, such as chronic pain, illness, or disability. She helps people navigate caregiver stress, money worries, and midlife questions in practical ways. For parenting challenges she supports parents who want clearer communication and better coping strategies.
Macarena aims to meet people where they are and work at a manageable pace. She invites clients to try small experiments, practice new skills, and build on strengths. Taking the first step can be hard, and she frames the first sessions as a chance to set priorities and make a plan.
Online approaches for anxiety and emotion regulation
Macarena commonly uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that feed anxiety. CBT focuses on practical exercises and clear steps to lower worry and improve daily routines.She also draws on dialectical behavior therapy skills to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and effective interpersonal communication. Those DBT-informed skills are useful when feelings become overwhelming or impulsive reactions cause problems.
Mindfulness therapy is used alongside these methods to build attention to the present moment and reduce rumination. Practicing short, guided exercises can help people notice thoughts without getting pulled into them.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. She will discuss goals, try methods, and adjust based on what helps. The process is collaborative and paced to your needs and preferences.
Online sessions include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules. Video is good for in-depth conversation and teaching new skills. Phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited and work well for focused check-ins. Live chat or text messaging can support brief check-ins, homework review, or ongoing encouragement between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- California, Maryland
- Languages
- English
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