About Maria
Maria Cusimano-Carl is a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than two decades of clinical experience. She is based in California and brings 22 years of practice to people dealing with stress, anxiety, relationship strain, low self-esteem, and depression. Maria focuses on clear, practical work.
She listens first, then helps people name what feels off. Sessions aim to build skills for day-to-day life and to shift patterns that keep problems going.
Background and approach
Her background includes leading relapse prevention and trust rebuilding groups for people in recovery. She has also worked with adoption and foster care concerns, attachment issues, autism and Asperger Syndrome, and caregiver stress. That experience informs how she supports people facing complicated family history and ongoing life stresses.
Her approach blends client-centered listening with evidence-informed methods such as cognitive behavioral techniques and dialectical behavior ideas. She also uses motivational interviewing and psychodynamic perspectives when they fit the situation. These methods are used to address thoughts, emotions, and relationship patterns in practical ways.
Maria works with adults age 18 and up. She offers sessions in English and sees clients from California. Her goal is to help people manage symptoms and make changes that feel realistic and sustainable.
People who prefer straightforward, steady support tend to find her style helpful. She focuses on small, manageable steps so progress can be seen between sessions.
Approaches that fit online therapy
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and responding to what matters most to the person. It helps people feel heard and guides the pace of work based on individual needs.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. It teaches practical tools for managing anxiety, changing unhelpful thinking, and handling stressful moments.
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, offers skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication. It can be useful when strong or quickly changing emotions get in the way of daily life.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Maria will collaborate with clients to match methods to their goals, needs, and preferences. She combines listening with skill-building so the plan can shift as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video lets people use visual cues and longer conversation. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth or camera use is limited. Live chat and text messaging allow for brief check-ins and pacing that fits a busy schedule. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or daily life while keeping therapy focused on practical change.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Life purpose
- Narcissism
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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