About Mary
Mary Cowen is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 26 years of experience. She has practiced in Texas, Oklahoma, and now North Carolina. Mary helps people facing grief, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, and addiction-related concerns.
She has worked across many settings, including community mental health, home health, schools, inpatient units, hospitals, and hospice. That variety shaped a practical approach to common problems like coping with life changes, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and eating-related issues.
How Mary works
Mary uses a mix of methods chosen to fit each person's needs. Sessions are warm and interactive, with respect and compassion at the core. She focuses on clear goals and skills people can use between meetings.
Her sessions often blend client-centered listening with cognitive behavioral techniques to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. Mindfulness practices and dialectical skills are added when stress, intense emotions, or relationship patterns are involved. Mary also brings experience addressing intimacy-related struggles, parenting concerns, career stress, and compassion fatigue.
She supports people dealing with adoption and foster care questions, aging and caregiver roles, cancer and chronic pain, and co-occurring substance issues. People who prefer practical tools along with empathic listening tend to fit well with her style. She welcomes conversations about goals, pace, and what feels most useful as therapy progresses.
Mary lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
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.
- Grief
- Eating disorders
- Self esteem
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 26 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | North Carolina |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Mary often combines client-centered therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy to help people make concrete changes. Client-centered therapy focuses on listening deeply and making space for the person's own goals, which helps when someone needs support and understanding. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) looks at thoughts and actions that keep problems going and teaches practical strategies to change them, useful for anxiety, depression, and stress.Mary also uses dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills when emotion regulation or intense reactions get in the way of daily life. DBT offers step-by-step tools for managing strong feelings, improving communication, and reducing impulsive behavior, which can be helpful for relationship and anger concerns.
Choosing the right approach is a joint process. Mary will talk with the person about their goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't helped before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions allow flexibility and fit different routines. Video calls work well for in-depth conversations and teaching skills visually. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging suit quick updates, homework help, or when messaging feels more comfortable. These options make it possible to keep therapy consistent around work, caregiving, or medical demands.
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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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