Macarena Santelices, LCPC, LPCC

Macarena Santelices is a licensed counselor with 14 years of clinical experience. She holds an LPCC in California and an LCPC in Maryland. She focuses on relationship and family concerns along with stress, anxiety, and mood difficulties. Her work centers on practical steps clients can use right away to feel steadier and more in control.

Macarena approaches sessions as a collaboration. She starts by listening to what matters most and uses that information to set clear, manageable goals. She helps people identify patterns that get in the way of better communication, self-esteem, or parenting, then practices straightforward skills to change those patterns.

Her methods draw on cognitive behavioral approaches, dialectical behavior techniques, and mindfulness practices. That means she helps clients notice thoughts and feelings, test unhelpful beliefs, and build small habits that reduce stress and improve relationships. She emphasizes short, usable tools rather than long explanations.

People often come to her for help with relationship strain, parenting stress, self-worth, grief around life changes, and persistent anxiety or low mood. Macarena also supports those coping with chronic illness, caregiver stress, or struggles with forgiveness, guilt, and loneliness.

She invites clients to move at a pace that feels right and to focus on changes they can sustain. To begin, readers can use the site’s continue button on this profile and complete a brief matching questionnaire to set up an initial session.

How therapy approaches guide online care

Macarena commonly uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT focuses on identifying patterns that increase anxiety or low mood and practicing concrete ways to test and shift them.

She also draws on dialectical behavior therapy ideas to teach emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication. DBT skills can be useful when feelings feel intense or when someone wants better ways to handle conflict and urges.

Mindfulness practices are used to strengthen awareness of the present moment and reduce reactivity. These techniques often pair well with CBT and DBT to help clients feel steadier day to day.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped before. From there she recommends strategies and adjusts the approach as needed so it fits the client’s life and priorities.

Session formats are not listed in the biography, so confirm available online options before booking. Many people find that remote sessions help fit therapy into busy schedules, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. Therapists can adapt exercises and homework to work well in online formats and help clients practice skills between appointments.