About Maria
Maria Pencheva is a counsellor who focuses on helping people facing stress and anxiety. She works with individuals dealing with relationship strain, low self-esteem, depression and the effects of trauma and abuse. She speaks English and Bulgarian and practices from the United Kingdom.
Maria believes clients are the experts in their own lives. She offers a warm, curious presence and aims to create a space where people can speak honestly about what is hard for them.
Background and approach
Her manner is attentive and empathetic, and she encourages clients to use their existing strengths as they work through difficulties. In sessions she mixes person-centred listening with practical ideas from cognitive behaviour work. That means clients can expect careful listening followed by simple tools to try between meetings.
She also draws on attachment and emotionally focused ways of thinking when relationship issues are part of the concern. Maria has four years of professional experience and holds BACP registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Her background includes counselling and positive psychology, plus earlier roles as an interpreter and advocate that inform how she relates to different life stories.
People who come to her often want help with panic or social anxiety, managing intense emotions, improving communication, or rebuilding confidence after a difficult event. She supports practical change alongside helping clients notice what matters most to them and why.
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Maria uses client-centred listening and cognitive behavioural techniques to help people manage anxiety and stress. Client-centred work focuses on empathetic listening and supporting a person to find their own answers, which can be done through conversation in video or phone sessions. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) offers clear steps and exercises to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, and those tasks can be set and reviewed between online meetings.She also draws on attachment-informed ideas when relationship difficulties appear, helping clients notice patterns in how they relate to others and try different ways of connecting. Choosing the right approach is a joint process; she discusses options with each person and adapts methods to match their goals and preferences rather than using a one-size-fits-all plan.
Online work is offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging, which makes counselling flexible for different routines. Video is useful for a fuller conversational feel, phone sessions suit those who prefer no camera, live chat and messaging allow brief check-ins or written reflection, and all formats make it easier to fit therapy around work or travel. Many people find this range helps them keep progress moving between sessions.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English, Bulgarian
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