About Maritza
Maritza Alvarez-Pena welcomes people looking for steady, practical support during hard times. She speaks English and Spanish and brings 23 years of clinical experience to each conversation.
Background and approach
She aims to make sessions direct and understandable so callers know what to expect from the start. Maritza is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California.
She uses clear, everyday language to help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and parenting strain. Sessions focus on realistic steps clients can try between meetings to ease pressure at home and work.
Her approach blends several styles to match each person’s needs. She may use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people notice painful thoughts without being driven by them.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be used to identify and shift unhelpful thinking and behavior. Attachment-based ideas are woven in when relationship patterns and trust issues are central to the concern.
Meetings are aimed at practical problem solving and emotional understanding. Maritza helps with issues related to abandonment, adoption and foster care, caregiver stress, chronic illness, communication problems, and blended family dynamics.
She also supports those coping with cancer, aging concerns, and attachment challenges. Sessions are offered by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit varied schedules.
Maritza focuses on collaboration - she and the client work together to set concrete goals and check progress over time.
Approach and access through online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps clients notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting overwhelmed by them, and it can be useful for anxiety, grief, and chronic stress. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and changing behaviors that keep problems going, which often helps with depression and anxiety. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns affect current relationships and communication, and it can be helpful when trust or connection problems are central.Choosing the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will listen to your goals and concerns, try a few methods, and adjust based on what helps. Together you set practical goals and check progress over time so the approach fits your needs and preferences.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video is useful for fuller conversation and nonverbal cues, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a shorter check-in, and text messaging supports brief updates between sessions. These options make it easier to schedule care around work, caregiving, or other commitments.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English, Spanish