The International Association of Top Professionals will honor Dr. Maria Rodriguez at their annual awards gala in NYC at the Plaza Hotel
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, February 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Dr. Maria L. Rodriguez, President of the Care Counseling Center, was recently selected as Top Licensed Professional Counselor of the Decade in Mental Health for 2026 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for her outstanding leadership, dedication, and commitment to the industry.
Being selected as an award recipient within the IAOTP is a prestigious achievement; only a select group of distinguished professionals earn this elite membership each year. Honorees are chosen for their professional excellence, academic accomplishments, leadership capabilities, longevity in their field, meaningful affiliations, and contributions to their communities. All recipients are invited to attend IAOTP’s annual awards gala at the end of the year, a celebration dedicated to honoring the achievements of these top professionals.
www.iaotp.com/award-gala
Dr. Rodriguez just recently founded the Care Counseling Access Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to expand access to culturally responsive mental health services and immigration-related psychological evaluations for underserved and vulnerable populations. The foundation focuses on reducing barriers to care and supporting individuals and families facing significant legal, social, and emotional challenges.
The President of IAOTP, Stephanie Cirami, stated, “We are honored to have Dr. Rodriguez as part of the IAOTP family. She provides visionary leadership as a female entrepreneur, and her extraordinary accomplishments prove she will empower women worldwide. We look forward to celebrating all her merits at the Annual Awards Gala and cannot wait to see more amazing things from this woman.”
With over two decades of experience, Dr. Rodriguez has firmly established herself as a respected expert in the field of mental health. She is the founder of Care Counseling Center, a facility devoted to providing compassionate and comprehensive counseling services to individuals, children, families, and couples navigating various emotional challenges and traumas.
Care Counseling Center stands as a beacon of empathy and resilience, inspired by Dr. Rodriguez’s journey through parental divorce, depression, and the complexities of adapting to a new country in the face of bullying, sexism, and racism. The center offers specialized support for issues such as family dynamics, depression, cultural adjustment, and discrimination. Grounded in a deep, personal understanding of adversity, the center’s individualized approach empowers clients to heal, grow, and thrive through life’s most difficult moments.
The center offers counseling, immigration, and social services. Dr. Rodriguez believes radical change is essential for immigrants to lead happier, healthier lives. To support this vision, she provides specialized mental health solutions tailored to the unique needs of immigrant communities, which often face challenges such as mental health struggles, cultural adjustment, and discrimination.
In addition to being a clinical mental health professional, Dr Rodriguez has excelled in managerial and leadership positions, providing clinical supervision and spearheading community outreach projects. Her impactful work also includes visionary legislative change and passionate political advocacy at the local and state government levels.
Her work has continued to focus heavily on trauma-informed psychological evaluations for immigration proceedings, including hardship waivers, VAWA, U visas, asylum, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases. These evaluations are regularly used in legal proceedings, and she also serves as an expert witness when clinical insight is needed to understand the psychological impact of family separation, displacement, and prolonged uncertainty
Before embarking on her career path, Dr. Rodriguez earned her PhD from Capella University and her Master’s Degree from William Paterson University.
Throughout her illustrious career, Dr. Rodriguez has received many awards and accolades and has been recognized worldwide for her accomplishments. Last year, Dr. Rodriguez was selected for the Empowered Woman Award by IAOTP and in 2024, Dr. Rodriguez was honored as IAOTP’s Top Licensed Professional Counselor of the Year in Mental Health. Last year she graced the cover of TIP (Top Industry Professionals) Magazine and is going to be featured with her own chapter in Top 50 Fearless Leaders, Volume 5. In December, she will be recognized at IAOTP’s Annual Awards Gala at the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York, where she will receive the award for Top Licensed Professional Counselor of the Decade in Mental Health.
Dr. Rodriguez’s impact extends far beyond her counseling practice. She has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Executives of New Jersey and named a Global Outstanding Leader in Health Care. In 2024, she received the Great Companies International Women Entrepreneur Award and was previously honored among the Top Women Leaders of New Jersey for 2023. The center was also awarded best of Somerville in 2024.
Her practice, Care Counseling Center, has also garnered high acclaim, earning the Best of Somerville, NJ award in 2022 and 2023, and being inducted into the Business Hall of Fame for its exceptional services and community impact.
Looking back, Dr. Rodriguez attributes her success to her perseverance, work ethic, and the mentors she has had along the way. When not working, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. For the future, she hopes to continue uplifting individuals in immigrant communities, bringing families together, and offering a guiding light of hope and healing to those who need it most.
For more information, please visit: https://carecounselingcenter.org/
About IAOTP
The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) is an international boutique networking organization that handpicks the world’s finest, most prestigious top professionals from different industries. These top professionals are given an opportunity to collaborate, share their ideas, be keynote speakers, and help influence others in their fields. This organization is not a membership that anyone can join. You have to be asked by the President or be nominated by a distinguished honorary member after a brief interview.
IAOTP’s experts have given thousands of top prestigious professionals worldwide the recognition and credibility they deserve and have helped them build their branding empires. IAOTP prides itself on being a one-of-a-kind boutique networking organization that handpicks only the best of the best and creates a networking platform that connects and brings these top professionals together.
IAOTP remains one of the most elite and highly respected professional recognition organizations in the world.
For more information on IAOTP, please visit: www.iaotp.com
Annette Natoli
IAOTP
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