About Mary
Mary Blankenburg is a licensed independent social worker with 35 years of experience in clinical practice. She draws on a long career in community settings and independent practice to guide people through difficult emotional moments. Her style is calm and straightforward, focused on listening first and then helping people find workable steps forward.
Mary helps people cope with anxiety, depression, grief, stress, and trauma. She also supports those facing relationship and intimacy-related issues, work and career stress, sleep and anger problems, and the effects of chronic illness.
How Mary works
Her work includes attention to identity and LGBT concerns, addictions, bipolar disorder, and ADHD symptoms. Her approach blends practical tools with a focus on relationships and attachment. Mary uses cognitive behavioral techniques to examine thinking and behavior.
She also incorporates acceptance-based practices to help people live with hard feelings while taking meaningful action. Sessions emphasize connection and clear goals. Mary pays attention to how past relationships shape present reactions, and she helps people notice bodily cues and reactions that affect mood and behavior.
Therapy combines talking, skill practice, and gentle movement when useful to help shift how a person relates to past hurts. People who work with Mary often want steady support and practical strategies across life changes. She aims to create a space where clients can reduce shame, build self-kindness, and practice new ways of coping that fit daily life.
Mary lists 13 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
What Mary works with
The areas below are the ones Mary selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
Training and background
| Register | LISW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 35 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Iowa |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Mary uses therapy approaches online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting overwhelmed by them. It focuses on values-based actions so someone can move forward even with difficult emotions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviors keep problems going and teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful patterns. Attachment-Based Therapy pays attention to how early relationships shape current reactions and helps people build safer, more trusting ways of relating.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to your goals, try different strategies, and tailor methods to what feels most useful. This is a collaborative process that balances practical skill building with attention to personal history and relationships.
Online sessions can happen by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging, which makes therapy more flexible. Video sessions work well for deeper conversation and practice, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging can fit short check-ins or quick skill reminders. These options help people fit therapy into work, caregiving, or busy schedules while keeping regular contact with licensed professionals.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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