Maria Gimenez-Cruz, LCSW

Maria Gimenez-Cruz is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing relationship strain, anxiety, stress, and major life changes. She greets clients with a calm, direct style and focuses on practical steps people can use right away. Sessions are collaborative and aimed at building strengths and clearer coping skills.

Maria draws on nine years of clinical work to guide people through grief, parenting challenges, sleep problems, and trauma-related concerns. She uses straightforward tools to address anger, low self-esteem, and the daily effects of ADHD. Her approach centers on identifying what already works for a person and expanding those skills.

In sessions she blends Client-Centered Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Narrative Therapy to meet each person where they are. Conversations aim to uncover patterns, test new behaviors, and reframe stressful stories that follow people from the past into the present. Maria also integrates mindfulness and motivational interviewing techniques when they fit a person’s goals.

She emphasizes a step-by-step plan that highlights strengths and practical problem solving. People can expect clear strategies, short practice tasks between sessions, and regular check-ins on progress. Maria frames challenges as skills to be learned, not fixed traits.

Maria provides services in Florida and works in both English and Spanish. She holds an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker - and tailors her work to each person’s needs. To begin, she asks people to consider what change they most want and to take one small step toward it.

How therapeutic approaches are used in online work

Maria commonly uses Client-Centered Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in her work. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely, reflecting a person’s experience, and helping them uncover their own strengths. It helps people who need a supportive space to process feelings and decisions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful patterns; it is useful for anxiety, depression, and sleep problems.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. Maria will work together with the person to identify goals and try techniques that match those goals. If something does not fit, she adjusts the plan and introduces other methods from mindfulness or narrative approaches as needed.

Because session options are not specified in the biography, confirm the current session formats before booking. Many people choose online therapy to fit care into a busy day, to have shorter check-ins around work, or to avoid travel time. Online sessions can make it easier to practice skills between meetings and to keep steady progress when life is busy.