Maria E. Castillo, LCSW
Choosing Yourself Is Not Selfish. It Is A Turning Point Toward Feeling Whole Again.
Bilingual therapy for Latina women and women in midlife navigating burnout, life transitions, and identity loss. In person in Pembroke Pines and surrounding communities. Telehealth throughout Florida.
Location in Pembroke Pines available to clients in the surrounding South Florida communities including Miramar, Hollywood, Cooper City, Davie, Plantation, Weston, and the Greater Fort Lauderdale area.
You know something has to change.
You’re the one people usually count on, the strong one, the capable one. You don’t ask for help because it feels like failing, or like you’d be adding to someone else’s load.
So you keep going. But lately, you just can’t deny that something feels different. The exhaustion runs deeper, and joy is harder to come by. You no longer recognize the recent version of yourself.
You realize that something happened gradually. There wasn’t a single moment when it changed, no big dramatic event, just years of showing up for everyone else. Your needs set aside so quietly you barely noticed. Until you did.
You noticed when a birthday felt different. When a relationship ended or lasted longer than it should have. Maybe the kids grew up and left behind a silence you weren’t ready for.
Maybe it was a career that no longer fits who you’re becoming. Or a quiet moment in front of the mirror, realizing you’ve been living a version of life that no longer feels like yours.
You now notice that the things that once lit you up stopped doing so. Life has slipped into autopilot. “I’m fine” no longer matches the truth.
You’re tired in a way that lives in your bones, tired of holding everything together while quietly coming undone.
And beneath the exhaustion, the roles, and the responsibilities, there’s still a woman who remembers wanting more.
She’s still there.
She’s the one who brought you here.
Maybe…
You are exhausted
It is not the kind of exhaustion that a good night’s sleep fixes. It lives deeper than that, in your bones. It lives in the way you move through your days on autopilot, checking boxes, meeting everyone else’s needs, wondering when it became so hard to do the things that used to come naturally.
Something has been off for a while
You have built a life that looks good from the outside. But on the inside, something has been off for a while. And you have been too busy or too unsure to stop and name it.
Burnout has settled in
And it came in so gradually that you thought it was just who you had become. Maybe your children have grown and left, and the silence in your home feels like a question you don’t know how to answer. Maybe you are in the middle of a transition, a career, a relationship, a decade, and the woman on the other side of it is someone you don’t fully recognize yet.
You have been running on empty
You were raised to be strong, to give, to carry, and asking for help still feels like something you have to justify.
You are not imagining it. And you are not alone in it. What you are feeling is real, and I started this practice for you.
Hello. I’m Maria Eugenia Castillo.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Florida and the founder of Another Angle Counseling Services. I am a warm, grounded, compassionate, and direct therapist who works with adult women navigating burnout, midlife transitions, and identity loss. My clinical focus centers on helping clients who are emotionally exhausted begin to reconnect with themselves in a more intentional and sustainable way. I work with the understanding that my clients are in the middle of significant developmental and emotional transitions. Midlife is a often a turning point marked by grief, reevaluation, relational shifts, and a quiet but powerful questioning of who they are beyond the roles that they’ve carried for years or even decades.
I founded this practice because I kept watching capable, devoted women disappear into their own lives. They were in a quiet search for who they were outside of what they did for everyone else. I knew there was a way back to themselves, and I still know that. That belief is the foundation of everything I do here.
A core part of my work is culturally responsive care. I create space for clients to explore the tension between cultural identity and personal autonomy without judgement, and to redefine what it means to care for others without losing themselves. Overall, my work is about reclamation. I help clients move from survival mode into a more conscious, connected, and self-aligned way of living.
I offer therapy in English and entirely in Spanish, in person in South Florida and via telehealth across the state of Florida. For my Latina clients, I bring more than bilingual fluency. I bring a deep cultural understanding of the Latina experience, what it means to carry the weight of family expectations, the pressure of always being strong, and the particular exhaustion that comes from a lifetime of self-sacrifice.
Beyond my practice, I find joy in family life and in photography, music, and movies—creative outlets that shape my perspective and inform my practice. Just as stories have the power to transform, I believe therapy can help you rewrite the narratives that no longer serve you, leading to growth, resilience, and meaningful change. In other words, I help clients move from “Here is what’s wrong with me” to “Here is the story of who I am becoming.”
Conmigo, no necesitas intérprete.
With me, you don’t need an interpreter.
You’re in the right place if…
You feel emotionally exhausted, even after resting.
You’re used to being the strong one, but you’re tired of carrying everything alone.
You look high-functioning on the outside while quietly struggling on the inside.
You’ve spent so much time caring for others that you no longer know what you need.
You feel disconnected from yourself, your joy, or the life you once imagined.
You’re navigating a major life transition and feeling overwhelmed, lost, or uncertain about what comes next.
You struggle with guilt when setting boundaries or prioritizing yourself.
You are tired of surviving and want to start living more intentionally.
You feel pressure to keep everyone else okay while ignoring your own emotional needs.
You want support that feels warm, honest, culturally responsive, and grounded in real life.
You are a Latina woman trying to balance cultural expectations, family responsibilities, and your own wellbeing.
You’re ready to stop disappearing inside your responsibilities and reconnect with yourself again.
You want a therapist who is warm but direct, who will engage with you, challenge you gently when needed, and hold a real belief in your capacity to change.
You do not have to wait until you completely fall apart to deserve support.
Therapy can be a space where you finally exhale, feel seen, and begin rebuilding a life that includes you, too.
If you read that list and felt recognized, you are exactly who this practice is for.
Here’s how I can help:
-
Burnout is more than stress. It is the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that can happen after years of carrying too much for too long. If you are struggling with burnout, you may be used to being the dependable one, the caretaker, the problem-solver, the person everyone turns to. Over time, it can leave you feeling depleted, emotionally numb, overwhelmed, resentful, or disconnected from yourself.
Therapy for burnout can help you:
understand the deeper patterns contributing to burnout
identify where chronic over-functioning and self-neglect began
create healthy boundaries without guilt
reconnect with rest, pleasure, and emotional balance
reduce anxiety, perfectionism, and people-pleasing
learn how to care for yourself without feeling selfish
Healing from burnout is not about becoming less caring. It is about learning how to stop abandoning yourself int he process of caring for everyone else.
-
Midlife can bring major emotional, relational, and identity shifts that no one prepares you for: empty nest, divorce, career change, loss of a parent, perimenopause, menopause, or retirement. Even expected transitions can feel unsettling when the roles, routines, or relationships that once defined your life begin to change.
Therapy for midlife transitions offers you a space to slow down, process change, and reconnect with what matters to you now, not just who you have been expected to be.
Together, we can work toward:
greater emotional clarity
resilience during uncertainty
healthier coping strategies
rebuilding confidence and self-trust
creating a more intentional next chapter of life
Midlife is not the end of your story. For many women, it becomes the beginning of a more authentic one.
-
Women sometimes reach a point where they realize they no longer know who they are outside of their responsibilities, relationships, or roles.
Identity loss can leave you feeling disconnected, emotionally flat, unfulfilled, or unsure of your direction.
Therapy can help you:
reconnect with your sense of self
explore the parts of yourself that were pushed aside
understand how family, culture, and life experiences shaped your identity
rediscover your values, needs, and desires
rebuild your self-worth outside of productivity or caretaking
create a life that feels more aligned and meaningful
This work is not about becoming someone new. It is about reconnecting with the version of you that may have been buried beneath years of obligation and survival.
-
Many Latina women are balancing multiple identities, generational expectations, caregiving responsibilities, and the pressure to succeed while remaining emotionally available to everyone around them.
For Latinas who prefer therapy in Spanish, therapy is conducted entirely in Spanish, not through an interpreter, but directly, with full bilingual fluency and deep cultural understanding of the Latina experience.
Therapy with me can provide a culturally responsive space to:
explore the impact of family and cultural dynamics
process guilt, resentment, or emotional overwhelm
develop healthier boundaries while maintaining connection
navigate identify conflicts between tradition and autonomy
heal from chronic self-sacrifice and emotional invisibility
reconnect with your voice, needs, and sense of self.
You do not have to choose between caring for others and caring for yourself. Therapy can help you create a healthier balance, one where your wellbeing matters too.
Conmigo, no necesitas intérprete.
Finances & Insurance
Individual Therapy
A one-on-one space where we focus on your personal and unique challenges, whether you’re navigating burnout, midlife transitions, or identity loss. Together, we’ll develop practical strategies to help you move into a more connected, intentional relationship with yourself and your life.
50 minutes | $175
Groups
In a group setting, you’ll have space to reflect, share, and learn alongside others who understand the emotional weight of burnout, midlife transitions, and identity loss.
Coming soon!
Insurance
I am in-network with several insurance companies, including Aetna, Cigna, Optum, and United Health.
If you plan to use insurance, please verify your coverage, copays, and deductibles directly with your insurance company before starting therapy.
Self-Pay or Out-of-Network Insurance
If you wish to elect not to use your insurance for therapy, you must pay out-of-pocket for all services.
If I am not in-network with your insurance, you may still be eligible for partial reimbursement through your out-of-network benefits. Please contact your insurance company to confirm out-of-network benefits, reimbursement rates, and any required documentation. I can provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance provider.
Payment & Client Responsibility
A credit card must be kept on file for automatic payments. Clients are responsible for understanding their insurance benefits, including copays, deductibles, and out-of-network reimbursement policies. Please check with your insurance carrier before starting therapy. While I can provide documentation, I cannot guarantee reimbursement.
Let’s make therapy simple.
1. Reach Out
Click the button below to request your free consultation. You can write in English or Spanish, whichever feels more natural. I respond to inquiries within 1-2 business days.
2. We Connect
We speak by phone. You share a little about what is bringing you to therapy, and I answer your questions and tell you what therapy with me would be like. Together, we decide if working together feels right.
There is no pressure. No commitment. Just a real conversation.
3. Get Started
If we decide to move forward, we schedule your first full session. We get to know each other and begin identifying what you most want from our work together.
4. You Start Feeling Like Yourself Again
We will start our weekly sessions, and over time, we can track your progress, adjust our focus, and build toward the life and the sense of self you came here to reclaim.
Hablo español | Terapia en la Florida |
Hablo español | Terapia en la Florida |
Ready to come back to yourself?