Monica Cesar McGraw, LICSW

Monica Cesar McGraw is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) based in Massachusetts. She has six years of experience helping people handle stress, anxiety, grief, and changes that make life hard to manage. She speaks English and Portuguese and meets people with respect and compassion.

Monica focuses on practical changes in everyday thoughts and habits that make problems feel smaller. She works with people facing trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, depression, anger, bipolar challenges, and ADHD-related struggles. She also supports those coping with relationship strain, family problems, caregiving stress, and end-of-life concerns.

Her approach blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy with mindfulness and narrative techniques. Monica uses Motivational Interviewing to help people find reasons to change and to set small, doable goals. Sessions aim to clarify what’s creating distress and build habits that reduce symptoms over time.

People who come for help can expect a collaborative process. Monica tailors conversations and plans to each person’s needs, drawing on simple tools and exercises you can use between sessions. She emphasizes steady progress rather than quick fixes.

If you prefer Portuguese, she can carry sessions in that language. To begin, use the Start Therapy button and complete the short matching questionnaire before scheduling according to availability.

How therapy approaches translate to online care

Monica commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy in her work. CBT focuses on noticing and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can help with anxiety, depression, panic, and obsessive patterns. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and improve coping with stress and grief.

Finding the right approach is a shared process. Monica will talk with the client about needs, goals, and preferences and suggest techniques to try. She adjusts methods over time based on what helps most in daily life, so sessions stay practical and goal oriented.

Confirm current online session options before booking, as formats are not specified here. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a workday, reduce travel time, and allow focused check-ins when energy is low. Some people find brief audio check-ins easier than video, while others prefer face-to-face conversation by video for guided exercises. The therapist will discuss what works best for scheduling, attention, and practicing skills between sessions.