Maria Caruso, LPC

Maria Caruso is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with twenty years of clinical experience. She practices in New Jersey and works with adults on relationship, grief, career, depression, anxiety, and other life stressors. Maria focuses on practical steps people can take now to feel steadier and to handle the hard moments. Her style is collaborative and straightforward. She treats therapy as a working partnership where both people have tasks to help reach the client’s goals. Sessions often include goal setting, journaling, and simple homework to test new ways of thinking and acting. Maria draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, client-centered approaches, and narrative ideas to help people untangle painful stories and build new coping skills. She also uses psychodynamic and solution-focused techniques when those fit a person's needs. The approach is flexible and shaped around each person's strengths and circumstances. Many clients come for help with family tension, parenting strain, or the ripple effects of illness and loss. She also supports people dealing with addiction, intimacy concerns, anger, low self-esteem, and major life transitions. Practical communication tools and behavior-focused tasks are common parts of the work. Sessions can involve written exercises, art-based prompts, or conversations that bring awareness to long-standing patterns. The aim is to offer hope, clear steps, and steady support while people move through change and healing.

How these approaches work online

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on building a respectful, nonjudgmental space where the person leads the conversation and the therapist listens and reflects. It helps when someone needs acceptance and space to clarify their values and choices.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) targets thoughts and behaviors that maintain distress. In sessions clients learn simple experiments, thought records, and behavioral steps to reduce anxiety, depression, or relationship patterns.

Narrative Therapy looks at the stories people tell about themselves and helps separate the person from the problem. It can be useful for grief, identity questions, and shifting unhelpful narratives that limit choices.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose techniques that fit their goals, personality, and life situation. Choices are reviewed as therapy progresses and adjusted to what helps most.

Online formats - video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging - make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is low or when someone prefers no camera. Chat and messaging support shorter check-ins, quick coaching, or ongoing reflection between longer sessions. These options provide flexibility around scheduling and communication style while keeping the therapeutic process focused on clear goals and practical steps.