About us

Dr. Maria Benito, PhD (Inflammation/Immunology), MSc (Physiology/Toxicology), BSc (Hons) in Human Biology

Master Degree MA (Clin) in Counselling & Psychotherapy, BSc (Hons) in Psychology

CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) certified - Individual and Group Crisis Interventions

Psychological First Aid certified

College Academic and Research Supervisor

Full accredited member of the Association of Professional Counsellors and Psychotherapists (APCP), Ireland

International member of the American Psychological Association (APA)

Member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI)

Member of The Irish Psycho-Social Oncology Network (IPSON)

SafeTALK Training (Suicide awareness)

ASIST Training (Suicide intervention)

Experienced therapist working in Clinical Teams and as Onsite Consultant.

INTEGRATIVE THERAPEUTIC APPROACH

Integrative trauma-informed Humanistic therapist with a medical research background, drawing on a combination of Narrative Therapy, Person Centered, and Solution focused. Depending on the client’s problems and needs I also incorporate other therapy models like Psychodynamic approach, Psychoanalytic Therapy, and Cognitive-Behavioural theories (CBT) in a Theoretical integration way.

Techniques used include recovering memories from childhood, motivational interviewing, storytelling, deconstruction and re-authoring stories, miracle questions, or cognitive restructuring, among others.

My therapeutic orientation incorporates the principles of humanistic and existentialism, social constructivism, psychoanalytic concepts, and includes multigenerational and multicultural perspectives.

Depending on the client’s needs, therapy may include:

Person-Centered Focus: The counselling session and its focus is about the client. The therapeutic relationship helps facilitate a process of discovery and identification of insights and solutions, enabling the client to discover the solutions that exist within his/her self.

Existential psychotherapy: helps to balance being aware of death without being overwhelmed by it, and motivates to make decisions that can positively impact their lives and their loved ones. The reality of death encourages us to make the most of opportunities and to treasure the things we have. I use this therapy to help patients dealing with freedom, death and meaninglessness in their life.

Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT): I work with the client to understand each problem and break it down into its component, which helps identify individual patterns of thoughts, emotions, bodily feelings and actions which are causing distress and we can then trace the underlying beliefs that maintain them. Depending on the need of the client, I use it in combination with humanistic or psychoanalytic approaches.

Psychoanalytical psychotherapy: helps patients resolve their problems focusing on increasing self understanding and deepening insight into emotional issues and conflicts which underlie the presenting difficulties because they have been conditioned to dismiss or suppress certain emotions. Using Psychoanalytical therapy, I look to foster change by helping the clients to understand their past and how events from their early life could influence past and present relationships and could be affecting them now.