Maria Pencheva
Compassionate counsellor focusing on emotional growth
About Maria
Maria Pencheva offers calm, steady support for people struggling with stress, anxiety, low mood, trauma, and relationship difficulties. She talks plainly and listens carefully, helping clients notice their strengths and take small steps toward change. Maria uses a warm, empathic style to make it easier to speak about painful or confusing experiences.
She works from a person-centred view that puts the client's experience first. Sessions focus on what matters most to the individual, whether that is managing panic, building self-esteem, or making sense of past hurt.
Background and approach
Maria also draws on cognitive behavioural techniques to spot unhelpful thoughts and develop new ways of coping. Her approach includes attachment-based ideas about how early relationships shape current patterns. Emotionally-focused methods are used too, especially when people want to understand and shift difficult emotional responses in relationships.
She combines these with existential themes to help people explore meaning and life purpose. Maria trained in counselling and has four years of professional experience supporting clients through issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress, panic attacks, social anxiety, body image and communication problems. She has also worked as an interpreter and advocate, experience that informs her practical, down-to-earth style.
Sessions are offered in English and Bulgarian and Maria works with international clients. She aims to create a non-judgemental space where people feel heard and able to try new ways of coping. The focus is on practical steps, steady emotional work, and helping each person find what fits for them.
What Maria works with
How Maria works
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Listed by Maria among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
Therapeutic approaches you can access online
Maria commonly uses person-centred counselling alongside cognitive behavioural therapy and attachment-based ideas. Person-centred counselling involves the therapist listening with empathy and helping the client name what they need; it suits people who want a supportive space to talk and make sense of feelings. Cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviours, which can help with anxiety, panic and low mood. Attachment-based work looks at how early relationship patterns affect present behaviour and can be useful for relationship problems and emotional regulation.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most helpful, and will adapt methods as the relationship develops. This is a collaborative process where the client and therapist decide together which techniques to use and when to change direction.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging, giving practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual cues matter. Phone sessions need less bandwidth and can fit into a short break. Live chat and messaging suit quick check-ins, reflective writing or people who prefer not to be on camera. These options make it easier to schedule regular sessions and to maintain continuity while fitting therapy around life.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
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Areas of focus
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 4 years
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English, Bulgarian
