Maria Cordero, LMHC
"Helping children and adults heal from trauma so they can embrace their authentic selves and live happier, more fulfilled lives."
I am passionate about the role I play in helping others overcome personal challenges while promoting meaningful and purposeful lives. My primary goal is to assist you in embracing more positive and helpful thinking patterns and implementing emotional regulation skills to promote positive behavior and lasting lifestyle changes.
Perhaps you’re experiencing higher-than-normal levels of anxiety or depression. Maybe you’ve been hurt in the past and find it difficult to let go and move on with your life. Or maybe you’re struggling to cope with the changes that are happening around you.
Regardless of what brings you to read my page, I want you to know that I am here for you and I can help you overcome whatever challenges you might be facing so you can move forward in a positive direction. I entered this field with a genuine desire and passion for helping others. I believe that everyone can find healing from emotional pain and has the capacity to utilize what once seemed like adversity, as the catalyst for making positive monumental changes.
I am a bilingual Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Florida, providing counseling in Spanish and English. EMDR therapy and Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy in English and Spanish.
While I have worked in the field for over a decade, I strive to grow and continue to learn. You deserve the best version of me, so I am very mindful of the need to continue my education. I am constantly looking to add new tools to provide the best possible service for my clients.
I offer counseling for children, adults and families at our beautiful offices in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs, Florida. I also provide online therapy via our secure telehealth platform for those who reside in Florida.
Call me today for your complimentary phone consultation at 954-391-5305 so we can discuss how I can help you and your loved ones!
Learn More About How I Help
Children & Adults Live Their Best Lives...
Counseling for Children & Adults in Plantation, FL
Counseling for Adults:
In my work as a counselor, I have obtained extensive experience working with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, trauma/PTSD, low self-esteem, and grief/loss. In my journey, I have worked with all ethnic backgrounds and various client populations.
I understand therapy as a working alliance, and I have a special interest in developing a collaborative therapeutic relationship with you that will serve as a foundation for our work together and will allow me to put myself in your shoes. I work with an Integrative personal approach based on your specific goals and needs because no single type of therapy explains all the facets of the human experience.
Individual therapy for adults is a process of discovery that allows us to overcome difficult moments and solve conflicts. I will guide you through obtaining self-knowledge, and internal balance, overcoming blocks and obstacles, and finding the meaning of life that you so deeply search for.
I believe in helping people achieve self-actualization by identifying personal strengths and embracing self-determination. I want to help you heal the wounds of the past that keep you stuck so you can overcome the obstacles in the present that prevent you from living a happy and healthy life.
EMDR Therapy:
EMDR Therapy is an integrative approach proven effective in alleviating the distress associated with painful memories, feelings, or sensations. It is a form of therapy that helps you heal from the effects trauma causes in your mind, body, and behavior and achieve emotional regulation by understanding the connection between the self and the body.
When someone has been through a traumatic event or intense continuous disturbing experiences, the information processing could be blocked or fragmented in the nervous system. This information can be activated automatically, conditioning your behavior and negatively affecting your life.
EMDR therapy is not exclusively used to process traumatic events but also to treat anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, phobias, PTSD, psychosomatic problems, grief, addictive behaviors, and more. EMDR can help you to improve your ability to build your internal strengths to address the past, present, and future. I want to help you break the trauma cycle to create new pathways to personal healing so you can live a happier and more fulfilling life.
Counseling for Children:
Working with children is one of my biggest passions. It has become a privilege to help improve their lives and their families lives. My objective is to help children become more confident as they grow, learn how express their emotions effectively, and understand how to solve their internal conflicts.
My approach focuses on satisfying the unique needs of each child, their parent/s, and their families. To help clients and their families meet their goals, I rely upon the therapeutic power of Play Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, and Art Therapy informed techniques.
I offer EMDR therapy for children, what I call Playful EMDR. Traumatic experiences in children can have devastating effects that can last long-term, interfering with their well-being at home, in school, and in their relationships with others. Unresolved trauma can lead to issues in mental, emotional, and physical health in adulthood.
I understand that being a parent can be challenging at times. You don’t have to struggle alone; I have made it my mission to guide parents' growth to create a safe attachment, support emotional regulation, set healthy boundaries with love, deal with problematic behaviors, and become fully present in their children’s lives. Parenting can be a fulfilling and fun experience, let me help you get there.
Faith Based Counseling:
Upon request, I include faith and spirituality in my clinical work as part of my integrative approach. A faith-based counseling approach allows people to find healing through their spiritual beliefs rather than purely relying on their cognitive abilities. Believing that we have the spiritual support we need gives us the confidence to actively search for ways to heal our hearts when feeling our Higher Power's presence and comfort.
When there is a deep spiritual concern, learning to use your faith as a strength is the first step to helping you overcome your problems. When we are connected to our faith, we find help when we need it the most.
It is beneficial to use spiritual practices and seek spiritual advice to overcome mental health challenges and additional life concerns. Spiritual growth is an investment that brings advantages to a person’s life, and it can be an aid in the development of spiritual well-being.
In Faith Based Counseling, my goal is to help you explore your spirituality and resolve your doubts. Relying on our faith gives us a solid foundation to resolve problems more effectively. I provide a safe space to invite clients to explore how their faith and or spiritual beliefs can be a transformative tool in the therapeutic process.
Heart-centered hypnotherapy & Hypnosis (HCH):
Heart-centered hypnotherapy has been used for over a century to help reprogram the subconscious mind. A big part of human suffering results from negative thoughts and beliefs that invade our minds subconsciously and influence our emotions and behaviors, affecting our mental and physical health and preventing happiness and growth.
Heart-centered hypnotherapy is the process of psychotherapy with a client in a hypnotic state. It has many applications in healing a long list of medical and psychological conditions like allergies, pain, depression, unhealthy behaviors, anxiety, and trauma/PTSD because it focuses on stress reduction and relaxation. It works because it helps people explore the root of their conflicts and sets them free from experiences and circumstances that have not been able to resolve.
In addition, hypnotherapy has successfully used hypnosis to help people quit smoking and lose weight. If you have found yourself numerous times trying to quit smoking Tobacco or releasing weight, hypnotherapy can be of great help.
What happens in the subconscious mind goes beyond our rational mind's understanding. There are underlying emotional reasons that become obstacles to living the way we want. "Trimline" and the "Clean Break" programs were created to guide you to discover the unhealthy emotional patterns in the subconscious mind to change them.
Integrating Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has positively impacted the healing of the wounds of my past and has motivated me to work toward transformation. I utilize hypnosis as a tool for client empowerment and self-knowledge. The goal of HCH is to extinguish destructive emotions and behavioral patterns and change them into new positive conclusions, make new decisions, and increase the spiritual connection and the heart-centered love within ourselves.
Since I was a child, I knew I wanted to help others feel better and overcome their problems. I started my journey with curiosity about human beings' essence, struggles, and fears. In time I realized that this curiosity became the search for my own self.
After graduating High School in Ecuador at the Ponticific Catholic University in Quito to obtain my degree in Clinical Psychology. Life took me to a different part of the world; this has been my home for the past 25 years.
I graduated from Argosy University with a Bachelor’s degree of Arts in Psychology. I decided to complete my education by getting my Masters in Science in Mental Health Counseling at Nova Southeastern University.
At the beginning of my career, I had the privilege to work in the community mental health setting and crisis intervention center. I learned things I don’t think I would have learned anywhere else and realized that I would have to continue my education to acquire the necessary skills to take my practice to the next level.
My happy place is when I am creating something, so arts and crafts are my absolute favorite thing to do. I am very curious and enjoy working with different materials, colors, and textures. I learned how to knit when I was eight years old, and my grandmother taught me how to make my first pair of sleepers, since then I have collected a lot of yarn and needless.
From my grandmother, I not only learned to knit but also that happiness is about finding balance and meaning even in the midst of moments of pain, suffering, failures, and loss. I also learned that in those moments, having a strong spiritual belief and prayer helped me to be the person I am today, a compassionate and loving human being who strives to continuously invite peace into my life and my clients.
I am a coffee lover, so my most joyful moments are when I have the opportunity to spend time with friends and family and share good conversations and a big cup of coffee.
Most importantly, I care about people; helping them has become my mission since I started my career. I provide you with a safe and comfortable space where you are welcome to be your true self. My goal is to make you feel understood, valued, and excited to work toward improving yourself.
I’m very approachable and provide a safe and comfortable environment for clients to be themselves, while fully exploring the concerns that bring them to counseling. I’m also aware that every individual is different and offer a unique approach to counseling to help you achieve your goals.
I understand the importance of having a space where you can connect with and integrate your emotions. I employ effective techniques and strategies that are tailored to your unique needs. I believe that every event in our lives, even the worst circumstances, can be changed by reversing mental patterns to achieve happiness.
There is a lot of gratitude in my heart because, in all the years of working with people, they have trusted me with the most precious things they have, like their emotions, secrets, and fears, and I have witnessed their incredible transformations. I am also grateful because they have allowed me to be an agent of change by letting me accompany them on their journey.
In my private practice I hold therapy, hypnotherapy, and EMDR therapy sessions in both, English and Spanish, and offer flexible hours at our beautiful office located in Plantation, FL. I also provide online counseling via our secure telehealth platform for those who reside in the state of Florida.
You don’t need to go through this journey alone; together we can figure it out. You are one step away from receiving the help to enjoy the gift of health and happiness.
Give me a call today for a complimentary phone minute consultation at 954.391.5305, so we can discuss how I can help you reach your goals. I’d be happy to provide more information about my services and discuss setting up a session!
I look forward to speaking with you!
