Maria Stride, BACP, NCPS

Maria Stride is a person-centred counsellor with six years of experience. She supports people dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, grief, addiction and ADHD. Maria offers a calm, compassionate space for people to talk about what’s worrying them. She aims to help people feel heard and understood as they work through difficult moments.

Maria takes a down-to-earth, collaborative approach in sessions. She listens first and follows the client’s pace, shaping conversations around what feels meaningful to each person. Practical ideas and short exercises are offered when they help, and sessions focus on small changes people can use day to day.

Alongside a person-centred foundation, Maria uses mindfulness practices to help with racing thoughts and everyday habits. She also draws on solution-focused techniques to identify small, achievable steps forward. Creative tools such as art and play are sometimes introduced to express feelings that are hard to name.

She works with a wide range of concerns beyond mood and anxiety, including intimacy issues, sleeping problems, career stress, compassion fatigue and family-related struggles. Maria also supports people dealing with attachment, abandonment, body image and caregiver stress.

Maria is based in the United Kingdom and holds BACP and NCPS credentials. Sessions are carried out in English. To begin, readers are asked to use the site’s Start Therapy button to complete a short matching questionnaire and arrange an appointment.

How these approaches work for online therapy

Maria uses a person-centred approach that places the client’s experience at the heart of the work, encouraging honest conversation and steady emotional support. This helps when people need someone to listen and reflect without pressure.

She also draws on mindfulness practices to help with racing thoughts and everyday habits, using simple breathing and attention exercises to build calm and focus. Solution-focused techniques are used to spot what is already working and to set small, practical steps toward change.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences in early sessions and adapt methods to suit what the person finds most helpful. Clients and therapist choose together which techniques to try and how to pace them.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so please confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, reduce travel time and allow consistent check-ins during life changes. It can also support shorter, focused sessions for quick problem-solving or mindfulness practice when that suits a person’s routine.