Maritza Garay, Trauma & First Responder Therapist in Longwood, FL

About Maritza

Hi, I’m Maritza: a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern (FL #IMH27553) at Longboat Counseling Services, working under the clinical supervision of Romina Papadopulos, LMHC (FL #MH16992). I’m a former NYPD officer with 20 years of service, a 9/11 first responder, and an EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS Level 1)-trained therapist specializing in trauma, PTSD, and the recovery work that comes after surviving things most people never have to face. I work with first responders, veterans, military families, survivors of traumatic events and domestic violence, and adults navigating grief, anxiety, and life-altering transitions. Sessions are available in English or Spanish, in person at our Longwood office or via secure telehealth across Florida.

Not everyone understands what it’s like to be a first responder. It’s not just witnessing trauma. It’s absorbing it. It’s responding to chaos, making split-second decisions, and then going home like nothing happened. It’s the moral injury of doing your job and still questioning, did I do enough? Did I do the right thing? It’s seeing people at their worst, then trying to show up for your family like nothing’s changed: while inside, everything has.

I know this because I lived it. I worked twenty years in law enforcement, including a career that began on September 11th, 2001 in the first NYPD academy class to respond to a terrorist attack, and ended after a promotion in the South Bronx. I know what it’s like to come home and not be able to put down what you carried into the precinct that morning. I know what the dreams look like. I know what it does to a marriage, to parenting, to your sense of who you are.

When you sit with me, you’re not going to spend the first ten sessions explaining your job to a therapist who has never been near it. We can skip that part and get to the actual work.

I have over two decades of experience supporting people through some of the hardest moments of their lives: first as a police officer in New York City, and now as a therapist in Florida. That experience has shaped who I work with most closely:

• First responders and law enforcement: police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, EMS personnel, dispatchers, and corrections officers
• Veterans and active-duty military: including those carrying combat trauma, moral injury, and the weight of transitioning back to civilian life
• Medical professionals and healthcare workers carrying secondary trauma, burnout, and the cumulative grief of the work
• Family members of first responders and military: the spouses, partners, and adult children who carry the weight of what their loved one is going through
• Survivors of domestic violence and intimate partner abuse
• Survivors of childhood trauma, sexual trauma, and complex/repeated trauma
• Adults navigating grief, life-altering events, and major transitions
• The Spanish-speaking community: both English- and Spanish-language sessions, with cultural fluency in Latino and Hispanic family dynamics

I offer a discount for first responders and a sliding scale based on financial need. Cost should never be the thing that keeps someone from getting trauma care.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): including complex PTSD and single-incident trauma
• First responder and military trauma: combat trauma, line-of-duty traumatic events, moral injury, burnout
• Childhood trauma and complex/developmental trauma
• Sexual trauma and assault recovery
• Domestic violence and intimate partner abuse recovery
• Grief and traumatic loss
• Anxiety and panic disorders
• Depression: including depression rooted in unprocessed trauma
• Emotional detachment and disconnection: common after long-term trauma exposure
• Relationship challenges stemming from trauma’s impact on connection and trust
• Life-altering transitions: major loss, retirement, identity shifts

If you’ve noticed yourself struggling with intrusive thoughts, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, difficulty trusting, relationship breakdown, or the sense that you’re white-knuckling through your own life, those are often the signs that trauma is asking to be addressed.

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