Maria Palej, BACP, NCPS

Maria Palej is a licensed counsellor who offers an integrative, person-focused approach to help people manage stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties and life transitions. With six years of professional experience, she combines practical skill and compassionate presence to support those coping with panic, depression, trauma, abuse recovery and a wide range of concerns from addictions and grief to intimacy and parenting challenges.

Maria works with individuals facing complex family dynamics, communication problems and issues such as abandonment, attachment concerns or difficulties with narcissistic relatives. She draws on client-centered techniques that prioritize the client's perspective and emotional experience, alongside psychodynamic ideas that explore past influences, and she integrates mindfulness and solution-focused elements where these will help the client move forward. This flexible approach is chosen to meet each person where they are rather than applying a single method to every case.

Fluent in English and Polish, Maria supports clients across many areas including career stress, self-esteem, ADHD, bipolar and mood-related challenges. She holds BACP and NCPS credentials - BACP indicating membership of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and NCPS indicating an additional professional counselling qualification. Maria aims to create a respectful, non-judgmental space where practical strategies and deeper exploration come together to help people make meaningful changes.

Therapeutic Approaches and How They Work Online

Maria uses client-centered therapy in sessions to prioritise the client’s own goals and feelings, creating space for personal insight and stronger self-understanding. This approach helps with anxiety, low self-esteem and relationship concerns by encouraging clients to lead the pace and focus of therapy.

She also draws on psychodynamic therapy to explore how past experiences and attachment patterns can shape present difficulties. This can be useful for people working through trauma, family of origin issues, or repeated relationship patterns.

Mindfulness-based practices are incorporated where helpful to build moment-to-moment awareness and reduce reactivity, which can support coping with stress, panic and emotional regulation challenges.

Choosing the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Maria collaborates with each person to identify which methods fit their needs, goals and preferences, adapting as the work progresses so therapy remains relevant and effective.

Online therapy with Maria is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging, providing flexibility for people balancing work, family or mobility needs. These options make it possible to access registered professionals from home or other convenient locations and to continue therapeutic work even when in-person meetings are difficult.