Maria Estante

A lot of the people who find their way to me have been living inside something repetitive, consuming, hard to interrupt. Intrusive thoughts that do not just pass through, but latch. Compulsions that can look behavioral, mental, invisible from the outside. Perfectionism that gets mistaken for conscientiousness until the strain of it becomes undeniable. Phobias that begin as fear and then quietly start reorganizing a life. Trauma that is no longer in the past in any meaningful nervous-system sense. Sometimes sensory overload. Sometimes executive functioning difficulties. Sometimes the particular intensity of being neurodivergent or gifted in a world that keeps misreading both.

That is usually where the work begins: not with a neat label, but with the pattern. The shape of it. The cost of it. The way a person has had to organize around it.

My practice focuses on OCD, perfectionism, PTSD, phobias, neurodivergence, and gifted learners. I treat many forms of OCD, but not relationship-focused or partner-focused OCD. That boundary matters, so I want to be clear about it.

***Please Note: I DO NOT TREAT RELATIONSHIP OR PARTNER FOCUSED OCD. However, I do treat the other forms of OCD.***

The therapies I use are evidence-based, but I do not experience the work as mechanical. For OCD, perfectionism, and phobias, I draw from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Exposure and Response Prevention. For skin picking and hair pulling, I use Habit Reversal Training and Comprehensive Behavioral Treatment. For trauma, I work with Cognitive Processing Therapy, EMDR, and Brainspotting. I also integrate EFIT, Solution-Focused Therapy, and Person-Centered therapy where they genuinely fit the person in front of me not just the diagnosis, not just the symptom list, but the actual person.

And that distinction matters to me. Because treatment, at least the way I understand it, is never only about reducing symptoms. It is also about understanding the logic of what developed. Why this pattern. Why now. Why this adaptation became necessary, and why it may no longer be serving the life you are trying to live.

What you can expect from me is a style that is engaged, thoughtful, and active. I am not especially interested in flattening someone into a checklist. I want to understand how your mind works, how your nervous system learned what it learned, what the pattern protects, what it costs, and where there may be more room than it first appears. More flexibility. More relief. More choice.

I keep returning to the idea that the most important story a person writes is the one they are already living. Not because life has to become polished or inspirational. Not because every chapter resolves cleanly. But because there is something consequential about recognizing that even the chapters shaped by fear, repetition, grief, survival — they are still part of your story, and they can still be worked with. Rewritten, in places. Expanded. Understood differently.

Therapy, to me, is not a passive process. It is not something being done to you while you sit there politely hoping it works. It is collaborative. Structured when it needs to be. Spacious when it needs to be. Rooted in methods, yes ... but also in attention, honesty, and the slow, sometimes surprising process of seeing yourself more clearly.

If that way of working resonates, you are welcome to reach out for a free initial phone consultation and see whether we may be a good fit.

Tel: 323-332-1655

Email: [email protected]