Maria Rocha, BACP

Maria Rocha is a counsellor with 12 years of practice and a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). She combines talking therapies with an interest in spiritual and personal meaning to help people make sense of difficult moments. Maria speaks English and Portuguese and works from the United Kingdom.

Her approach is practical and down to earth. She uses techniques from cognitive and client-centred work to help people notice thought patterns and everyday habits that keep problems going. Sessions focus on understanding what is happening now and tracing patterns back to their roots so people can change how they respond to stress, anxiety or low mood.

Maria also draws on attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships shape current behaviour and choices. She helps people who struggle with relationships, self-esteem, grief, parenting pressures, addictions and major life changes to identify small, manageable steps forward. Conversations may include exploring values, experimenting with new responses, and building self-understanding.

People meet a calm, reflective counsellor who wants to make therapy easy to follow. Maria aims to strengthen a person’s sense of identity and agency over time. She works with the whole person - emotional, intellectual and spiritual - while keeping sessions focused on clear, achievable goals.

If you are thinking about counselling, the Start Therapy button will guide you through a short questionnaire and the scheduling steps.

Approaches that guide online work

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and reconnect with personal values. It’s useful when worries or low mood make it hard to act in ways that matter. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying thought patterns and testing them with small behavioural experiments to reduce anxiety and depression. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current reactions and helps people build healthier ways of relating.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss options with clients and together they will choose what fits the person’s goals, needs and preferences. That might mean mixing methods and trying different exercises until something feels useful.

Confirm the session formats before booking because the biography does not list them. Online sessions can help fit therapy into a busy life by removing travel time, making it simpler to schedule around work or childcare, and allowing shorter check-ins when a full session isn’t needed. They also let people work from a familiar, quiet setting and use video or audio depending on what feels manageable. Registered and accredited professionals can work with international clients, and this counsellor accepts enquiries from outside the United Kingdom.