Maria Pecard, M.A.

Maria Pecard (she/her/ella) is an Advanced Doctoral student in clinical psychology at Adler University where she is pursuing an emphasis in traumatic stress. She has specialized training in trauma-focused assessment and intervention, including evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and the ARC framework. The ARC Framework (Attachment, Regulation, Competency) is a way to understand what people need in order to feel safe, grow, and recover—especially if they’ve been through tough or traumatic experiences. It’s often used to help kids, but the ideas apply to everyone. Maria is passionate about adapting interventions to meet each client’s individual needs and is dedicated to trauma-informed, culturally responsive care.

Her clinical experience spans inpatient, outpatient, and community-based settings, with a strong foundation in working with children and adolescents impacted by trauma. She has extensive experience in psychological assessment, including conducting intake interviews, selecting and administering testing batteries, and interpreting results from cognitive, academic, personality, and behavioral measures. Maria integrates test data with clinical interviews and collateral information to write strengths-based reports that reflect each client’s cultural background and developmental context. She values making feedback meaningful and accessible for families, and strives to ensure her assessment work directly supports individualized care.

As a native Spanish speaker and immigrant, Maria is committed to bridging language and cultural gaps in mental health services, and she values working collaboratively with families, case managers, and multidisciplinary teams to offer comprehensive support.

In her free time, Maria enjoys spending time with her family.

Maria is supervised by Dr. Kristen Suing and Dr. Phillipe Kleefield.