Maria Wallgren, ACA

Maria Wallgren approaches therapy by prioritizing empathy, respect, and a non-judgmental style that supports clients as they navigate personal challenges. She combines a holistic foundation with a person-centred framework and an eclectic mix of techniques to tailor a creative, inclusive, and practical plan for each individual. Her therapeutic stance emphasizes collaboration - she respects each person as the expert in their own life while offering guidance and tools to support change.

Maria has worked across corporate, private, higher education, psychiatric, and not-for-profit settings in Australia and Europe, taking on roles both as a counsellor and in non-counselling capacities. She works with adults from diverse cultural backgrounds and has a particular interest in cultural diversity, transnational counselling, and reducing stigma around mental illness. She is also fluent in Swedish.

Her areas of focus include stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties, self-esteem concerns, depression, and coping with life changes. Additional interests include communication problems, control issues, forgiveness, guilt and shame, isolation and loneliness, life purpose, midlife transitions, multicultural concerns, panic disorder and panic attacks, self-love, and workplace issues. Clinically she draws from client-centred therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness therapy, narrative therapy, and solution-focused therapy to match approach to need.

Maria holds ACA, a professional counselling credential, and she approaches each therapeutic relationship with curiosity and respect for the client’s story. She was drawn to counselling by a deep interest in people and their narratives, and she sees it as a privilege to support individuals as they continue to write their own story.