About Maria
Maria Clara Salazar-Pretto greets people with warmth and clear goals. She focuses on helping individuals manage stress, anxiety, relationship and parenting concerns, grief, trauma, and career strain. Maria Clara speaks English and Spanish and draws on 20 years of practice to guide each person toward steadier functioning.
She uses straightforward, practical methods in sessions. Conversations tend to focus on current problems and steps a person can try between meetings. Maria Clara listens closely, offers validation, and helps people notice patterns that get in the way of feeling better.
How Maria works
Her background includes work in hospitals, health centers, and personal agencies across many care settings. Maria Clara earned a Master’s degree in social work from California State University, Fresno and holds a Florida LCSW. That mix of clinical training and long experience shapes how she supports clients.
Sessions commonly draw on client-centered care alongside Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills. She also uses mindfulness and solution-focused ideas to build coping strategies that fit each person’s life. The emphasis is on practical tools rather than long explanations.
Maria Clara is comfortable offering therapy by video, phone, chat, or text messaging. She works collaboratively to set goals and tailor approaches to each person’s needs. A first step is a short matching questionnaire and then scheduling to find a good time to begin.
Maria lists 6 ways of working on the entry:
What Maria works with
The areas below are the ones Maria selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English, Spanish |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Florida |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How evidence-based methods translate to online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building trust so a person can name what matters and set their own goals. In online sessions this approach helps shape conversations and priorities based on each person's lived experience.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical skills to notice and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, stress, and many everyday problems because it breaks issues into manageable steps and homework exercises.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) contributes skills for managing intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and strengthening relationships. Short skills practice and emotion-regulation tools are often used between sessions to reinforce progress.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with the client to identify goals, try strategies, and adjust methods based on what helps most. That teamwork makes it easier to find techniques that fit personal needs and life demands.
Online therapy offers flexibility in how people connect. Video calls enable face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat supports shorter check-ins, and text messaging allows ongoing brief support. These options make it simpler to fit care into busy schedules and to continue work when life circumstances change.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
Book with MariaWe will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.
Common questions
What kinds of problems does this therapist help with?
What is the therapist's general approach in sessions?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
In which languages can sessions be conducted?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin therapy with this clinician?
A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. Entries are not assessed or endorsed by this directory.
Other entries for stress, anxiety
Supportive LCSW helping people build strength and clarity
Practical, trauma-aware therapy for everyday life
Practical, relational therapy for life transitions