--- title: "Approach | CBT, EMDR, Mindfulness | Maria Van Thienen, LMFT" description: "A warm, collaborative, goal-oriented approach to therapy, drawing from CBT, EMDR, and mindfulness. Bilingual in English and Spanish." lang: en-US json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": [ "MedicalBusiness", "ProfessionalService" ], "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#business", "name": "Counseling with Maria", "legalName": "MBGM Consulting LLC", "description": "Bilingual, EMDR-certified LMFT offering couples, anxiety, and trauma therapy in Weston, FL, and telehealth across Florida.", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com", "image": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/__l5e/assets-v1/7d3bcbd2-ddaf-43c1-9959-4e32b159272f/maria-van-thienen.jpg", "logo": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/__l5e/assets-v1/7d3bcbd2-ddaf-43c1-9959-4e32b159272f/maria-van-thienen.jpg", "telephone": "(954) 654-6774", "priceRange": "$$$", "founder": { "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#maria" }, "employee": { "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#maria" }, "founderName": "Maria Van Thienen, LMFT", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "2645 Executive Park Drive", "addressLocality": "Weston", "addressRegion": "FL", "postalCode": "33331", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 26.0823, "longitude": -80.3915 }, "areaServed": [ { "@type": "City", "name": "Weston" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Fort Lauderdale" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Pembroke Pines" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Davie" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Plantation" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Sunrise" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Cooper City" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Miramar" }, { "@type": "AdministrativeArea", "name": "Florida" }, { "@type": "Place", "name": "Telehealth in Florida" } ], "availableLanguage": [ "English", "Español" ], "provider": { "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#maria" }, "serviceType": [ "Couples Counseling", "Marriage Therapy", "Anxiety Therapy", "Trauma Therapy", "EMDR Therapy", "Christian Marriage Counseling", "Catholic Marriage Counseling", "Telehealth therapy in Florida" ], "availableService": [ { "@type": "MedicalTherapy", "name": "Couples Counseling", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/couples-counseling" }, { "@type": "MedicalTherapy", "name": "Anxiety Therapy", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/anxiety-therapy" }, { "@type": "MedicalTherapy", "name": "Trauma Therapy (EMDR)", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/trauma-therapy" } ], "paymentAccepted": "Private pay; superbills available on request for possible out-of-network reimbursement" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#maria", "name": "Maria Van Thienen", "honorificSuffix": "LMFT", "jobTitle": "Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist", "description": "Bilingual (English/Spanish), EMDR-certified Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 30+ years of experience supporting couples, adults, teens, and children in Weston, FL and via telehealth across Florida.", "image": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/__l5e/assets-v1/7d3bcbd2-ddaf-43c1-9959-4e32b159272f/maria-van-thienen.jpg", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/meet-maria", "knowsLanguage": [ "English", "Español" ], "knowsAbout": [ "Couples Counseling", "Marriage Therapy", "Anxiety Therapy", "Trauma Therapy", "EMDR", "Depression", "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy", "Mindfulness-Based Therapy" ], "hasCredential": [ { "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "license", "name": "LMFT (FL) MT3115" }, { "@type": "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory": "certification", "name": "EMDR Certified" } ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#business" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/REPLACE-ME", "https://www.google.com/maps/place/?cid=REPLACE-ME" ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#website", "name": "Maria Van Thienen, LMFT", "url": "https://counselingwithmaria.com", "inLanguage": [ "en-US", "es-ES" ], "publisher": { "@id": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/#business" } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Approach", "item": "https://counselingwithmaria.com/approach" } ] } ] --- [![](/__l5e/assets-v1/7a69d5a3-a3ea-40ca-8fb1-b87d03f5f058/logo-mark.png)](/) Specialties - [Couples Counseling](/couples-counseling) - [Anxiety Therapy](/anxiety-therapy) - [Trauma and EMDR](/trauma-therapy) - [EMDR Therapy](/emdr-therapy) - [Christian Marriage Counseling](/christian-marriage-counseling) - [Christian Couples Counseling](/christian-couples-counseling) - [Catholic Marriage Counseling](/catholic-marriage-counseling) - [All specialties](/specialties) Areas We Serve - [Weston](/areas-we-serve) - [Fort Lauderdale](/areas-we-serve) - [Pembroke Pines](/areas-we-serve) - [Davie](/areas-we-serve) - [Plantation](/areas-we-serve) - [Miramar](/areas-we-serve) - [Hollywood](/areas-we-serve) - [All areas](/areas-we-serve) About - [Meet Maria](/meet-maria) - [Approach](/approach) - [Rates](/rates) - [Frequently Asked Questions](/faq) [Contact](/contact)[EN](/)[ES](/es/enfoque) [(954) 654-6774](tel:+19546546774)[Contact Maria](/contact) Approach # Warm, collaborative, _evidence-based_. Therapy at this practice integrates three of the most well-supported approaches in mental health, sequenced to where you are, not where a protocol expects you to be. ![Inside Maria's Weston, FL therapy office, calm seating, warm lamps, soft natural light](/__l5e/assets-v1/54345892-0165-4d68-923f-7bef9e2aba6e/office-1.jpg) ## CBT Cognitive-behavioral therapy, practical tools for the patterns that keep tightening their grip. Used for anxiety, depression, and stuck thinking. ## EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, an evidence-based therapy for trauma and stuck memories. Maria is EMDR-certified. ## Mindfulness Body-based skills for steadiness, regulation, and presence, integrated throughout the work, not as a separate add-on. What it's like ## A typical _arc_ of the work. 01 ### We meet A first call to hear what's bringing you in and decide together whether we're a good fit. 02 ### We map the work In our first sessions, we shape goals together. Pace, frequency, and modality are collaborative. 03 ### We build steadiness Skills first: nervous-system regulation, mindfulness, and cognitive tools you can use between sessions. 04 ### We go deeper When you're ready, EMDR or focused work addresses what's underneath. Always on your timeline. 05 ### We review and refine Therapy is reviewed openly. We adjust, celebrate progress, and end well when it's time. Choosing the method ## Chosen for the person, not applied as a formula. Maria does not decide on a method before she has met you. She listens first for what is actually driving the problem, and the method follows from that. When the trouble lives mostly in present-day thinking and behavior, a worry loop that spins every night, an avoidance that has quietly shrunk your week, a conclusion about yourself you have stopped questioning, cognitive-behavioral work is usually where she starts, because it gives you something to do with the pattern rather than only a name for it. When the present keeps snagging on something older, EMDR becomes the better tool. The tell is a reaction that is out of proportion to what just happened: a tone of voice that floods you, a place you cannot drive past, a memory the body still treats as current. EMDR is for the material that talking about has not settled. Mindfulness-based work is rarely the whole plan and almost always part of it. Before anything difficult is touched, you need a reliable way to come back down, attention to breath, to the body, to what is actually in the room. That is the stabilization step, and skipping it is how therapy becomes overwhelming instead of useful. Most people are somewhere in the middle, and the work moves between the three across months rather than picking one and staying there. Maria will tell you which one you are in and why, in plain language. You should never be in a session without knowing what you are doing or what it is for. The first session ## Something concrete to _try_. The first hour is not an interrogation and it is not a form. Maria will ask what brought you now rather than a year ago, what you have already tried, and what you want to be different. If you come as a couple, both people get real, uninterrupted time to describe the problem as they see it, she will not let one version of the story become the official one. Toward the end she tells you how she reads it and what she would suggest working on first. Most people leave those early sessions with something concrete to try before the next one: a way to interrupt the 2 a.m. spiral, a specific sentence to use when a conversation starts to tip, a boundary to test with one person. Insight matters, but something changing in the week between sessions is what tells you the work is moving. She is also direct about fit. Thirty years in, she knows the cases she is genuinely good at and the ones better served by a psychiatrist, an eating-disorder specialist, a substance-use program, or a colleague with a different focus. If you are one of those, she will say so early and point you somewhere real rather than keep the hour. No therapist can promise how a marriage will turn out, and she will not pretend otherwise what she can tell you is whether she thinks this work is worth starting. Sessions run in person at the Weston office or by secure video anywhere in Florida, fully in English or fully in Spanish. Whichever language you think and argue and cry in is the one the work should happen in. Related - [Meet Maria](/meet-maria) - [What EMDR is actually like](/emdr-therapy) - [Anxiety therapy](/anxiety-therapy) - [Trauma therapy and EMDR](/trauma-therapy) - [Rates and superbills](/rates) - [Questions people ask first](/faq) - [Lea esta página en español](/es/enfoque) [Contact Maria](/contact) ![Maria Van Thienen, LMFT](/__l5e/assets-v1/7a69d5a3-a3ea-40ca-8fb1-b87d03f5f058/logo-mark.png) A calm, non-judgmental space to _reconnect_ with yourself and the people you love. Counseling with Maria · Maria Van Thienen, LMFT · Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in Florida (MT3115). EMDR-certified. Bilingual English / Español. #### Office 2645 Executive Park Drive Weston, FL 33331 Telehealth across Florida [(954) 654-6774](tel:+19546546774) #### Specialties - [Couples Counseling](/couples-counseling) - [Anxiety Therapy](/anxiety-therapy) - [Trauma and EMDR](/trauma-therapy) - [EMDR Therapy](/emdr-therapy) - [Christian Marriage Counseling](/christian-marriage-counseling) - [Christian Couples Counseling](/christian-couples-counseling) - [Catholic Marriage Counseling](/catholic-marriage-counseling) #### Areas We Serve - [Fort Lauderdale](/couples-counseling-fort-lauderdale) - [Pembroke Pines](/couples-counseling-pembroke-pines) - [Hollywood](/couples-counseling-hollywood) - [Miramar](/couples-counseling-miramar) - [Davie](/couples-counseling-davie) - [Plantation](/anxiety-therapy-plantation) #### Explore - [Home](/) - [Meet Maria](/meet-maria) - [Couples](/couples-counseling) - [Anxiety](/anxiety-therapy) - [Trauma and EMDR](/trauma-therapy) - [Approach](/approach) - [Rates](/rates) - [Contact](/contact) - [Privacy Policy](/privacy) #### Begin [Contact Maria](/contact) [EN](/)[ES](/es/enfoque) In a crisis or emergency This site is not monitored for emergencies. If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text [988](tel:988) (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call [911](tel:911). Contacting the practice through this website does not establish a therapist-client relationship. © 2026 MBGM Consulting LLC. Therapy outcomes vary by person, situation, and engagement; no specific results are guaranteed. [Privacy](/privacy.html)[Terms](/terms.html)[Cookies](/cookie.html)[Disclosures](/disclaimers.html)[Good Faith Estimate](/good-faith-estimate.html)[Website by Automaus.ai](https://automaus.ai)