Paula Stroian

My therapeutic approach is integrative, drawing primarily on schema therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). I adapt the balance of these depending on what each client brings and what makes sense for their particular process. In practice, this means that while I use structured, evidence-based techniques, the starting point is always the relationship we build together. I pay close attention to what shows up in the room. I find that this is often where the most important work begins. Schema therapy offers a framework I find particularly valuable for understanding recurring patterns - the ways people get stuck in the same emotional places or relational dynamics, often without knowing why. Through schema therapy, we can trace these patterns back to the early experiences and unmet needs that shaped them, This is involves experiential techniques that allow you to access and process what often can't be reached through talking alone. CBT gives me a solid foundation for working with the thought patterns and behaviors that maintain distress in the present moment. ACT adds another dimension by helping clients develop a different relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions - learning to make room for difficult thoughts and emotions while still moving toward what matters. I believe that meaningful change doesn't come from being told what to do differently, but from arriving at a felt sense of what is actually going on. When clients begin to see their patterns clearly, not as flaws, but as responses that make sense, something shifts. They become less at war with themselves and more able to choose differently. My style in session tends to be warm, direct, and curious. I ask questions, sometimes uncomfortable ones, but I do so with care, and I make sure my clients know that this is a space where they set the pace. I take my role seriously without taking myself too seriously, and I find that a degree of lightness and humor, when it arises naturally, can be just as therapeutic as the deeper work. If there is one thing that shapes my approach above all else, it is this: I have seen, over and over, that people carry more inner resources than they realize. My job is not to provide answers, but to create the conditions, namely curiosity, safety, gentleness, in which those resources can surface. The moments I value most in my work are the ones where a client surprises themselves with how brave they can be.

In my private practice, I see adults struggling with depression, anxiety, and impulse regulation, as well as more complex difficulties involving trauma, personality patterns, ADHD, and addiction. Alongside my private practice, I worked as a clinician at the PsyTech University Clinic at Babeș-Bolyai University until 2023, where I also taught Introduction to Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy and a course on Self-Knowledge and Personal Development. My doctoral research, completed in 2024, focused on early maladaptive schemas in depression and resulted in several publications. I have also contributed to research projects on schema therapy for social anxiety and on emotional disorder prevention in children and adolescents. I facilitate workshops on self-understanding and emotional patterns, and I am actively developing group formats as part of my commitment to making therapeutic work more accessible beyond the individual therapy setting.

I am currently licensed by the Romanian College of Psychologists as an independent practitioner at the specialist level in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. My training began at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, where I completed my bachelor degree in Psychology (2014) and master degree in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy (2017). Following this, I obtained certification as a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist under supervision (2018). Over the following years, alongside my continuous training in cognitive behavioral therapy, I undertook training in schema therapy, including theoretical coursework and extensive ongoing supervision, a process that spanned from 2019 to 2025 and significantly deepened my understanding of how to work with long-standing emotional and relational patterns. In 2024, I completed my doctorate in psychology, also at Babeș-Bolyai University. My doctoral research focused on the mechanisms involved in schema therapy for depressive disorders, examining what makes these interventions effective and how change occurs at a deeper level.