Maritza Plascencia, M.A., LMFT

Maritza Plascencia is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, founder of Mindful Quest Relationship Counseling in Tustin, CA. Her specialty is working with adult individuals and couples dealing with relationship issues rooted in trauma; mostly dealing with anxiety, depression, grief, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), childhood trauma, domestic violence and sexual assault. She has worked with survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault in different capacities since 2007. Maritza completed her undergraduate work at University of California, Irvine, obtaining her Bachelor's Degrees in Criminology and English.

As a Victim Advocate in Criminal Court for the Domestic Violence Unit in Orange County, she became a certified Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Counselor. Through her advocacy work Maritza was exposed to the many levels in which survivors needed assistance and decided to pursue her Master's Degree in Marital and Family Therapy at the California School of Professional Psychology in Alliant International University, hoping she would continue to help survivors deal with the immediate effects of violence, while also joining the prevention movement by educating other professionals and the community about these topics.

While completing her Master's degree she went on to work at a community program within her local city government, where she mainly worked with survivors, educating police officers and collaborating with community-based agencies in planning events to create awareness about intimate partner violence and mental health. While at a domestic violence agency, she worked with survivors on a clinical level in various settings (outpatient, emergency shelter and transitional housing). For almost five years, Maritza worked offering individual and family counseling and facilitating the Personal Empowerment Program as well as other process and psycho educational groups on topics like Anger Management, Assertiveness, Codependency and Healing from Sexual Assault.

Maritza has been a trainer for the Orange County Human Trafficking Survivor’s Foundation, 40-Hour Domestic Violence Advocacy Training as well as a workshop presenter on the topic of “Coping Strategies After Abuse”. She was a speaker at Cal State Fullerton’s 18th Annual Violence Prevention Conference and has also been invited as a guest lecturer to educate graduate students on the clinical consideration surrounding Domestic Violence.

Her style is holistic and client-centered with an emotionally focused approach. She incorporates Energy Psychology, such as mindfulness, Reiki, Pranic Healing and spirituality into her work. She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Brainspotting (BSP), all evidence-based therapy modalities.

Maritza has been happily married to her college sweetheart and best friend for the past 19 years (an overall 22-year relationship).  She is a first generation daughter of Mexican-born, immigrant parents, the oldest of five, first college graduate and very close to her family.  From her mother, a dedicated homemaker, she learned to express her creativity in the kitchen and developed her love for cooking, she has intuitive taste buds that give her the ability to recreate dishes from scratch without a recipe. From her father, a passionate watchmaker, she learned to question the meaning and purpose of human existence when from an early age he would entertain her every “Why?” question. Often visiting him at work or being allowed to sit in his workshop at home to watch him work on watches she learned that one must let passion lead to one's profession so that "you will feel like you have not worked a day in your life." 

"The relationship we create with ourselves is the foundation for all other relationships.  Therefore, we must be mindful to cultivate the most intimate, healthy and loving relationship with all aspects of ourselves first.  We must find balance between our mind, body, and spirit in order to find balance in the world."

-Maritza Plascencia

Maritza has been featured on several podcasts, media segments, as a guest lecturer and panel speaker at several universities and high schools and has been invited as a trainer. She enjoys reaching her community beyond therapy sessions and is passionate about inspiring newer and aspiring clinicians by sharing her knowledge and experience. Her love for speaking, teaching and creating opportunities for healing and growth in group settings was discovered during her five years of working at a domestic violence agency where she facilitated multiple weekly groups. Her style during presentations is interactive, she likes engaging her audience to put them at ease in order for them to process the information being presented for better understanding and leave with all questions answered.