Michel Martin Cintra

I am a bilingual English and Spanish Licensed Professional Counselor in New Jersey with experience supporting adolescents and adults experiencing trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, and major life transitions. My work is warm, compassionate, and collaborative. I provide a space where clients can feel understood without judgment while also receiving thoughtful guidance toward meaningful change.

Rather than focusing only on surface symptoms, I help clients understand how earlier experiences, attachment wounds, and protective survival responses may still influence their emotions, relationships, body sensations, and choices today. My work draws from attachment based therapy, somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems informed care, psychodynamic therapy, and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Together, we work toward greater safety, self understanding, emotional regulation, and healthier ways of moving forward

My approach is warm, collaborative, and gently direct. I begin by helping clients feel safe, understood, and grounded before exploring painful experiences. Together, we look beyond the immediate symptom to understand the deeper emotional, relational, and historical roots of what is happening. I help clients notice how past experiences may continue to appear through protective patterns, beliefs, relationship difficulties, and nervous system responses in the present.

I integrate attachment based, somatic, psychodynamic, IFS informed, and trauma focused approaches. This may include exploring different protective parts of the self, noticing where emotions are held in the body, building regulation skills, and developing more compassionate internal responses. Sessions are paced according to each client’s readiness and include both deeper insight and practical tools that can be used in everyday life.

In our first session, you can expect a warm, respectful, and nonjudgmental environment where you can begin sharing what brings you to therapy at a pace that feels manageable. You will not be expected to discuss painful experiences before you feel ready. We will explore your current concerns, relevant history, strengths, support system, and what you hope will become different through therapy.

Together, we will identify meaningful and realistic goals, begin noticing patterns that may be keeping you feeling stuck, and discuss an initial direction for treatment. When appropriate, I may introduce a simple grounding or nervous system regulation practice that you can begin using right away. My goal is for you to leave the first session feeling heard, better understood, and clearer about how we can move forward together.