Mary Blankenburg , LISW

Mary Blankenburg is a licensed independent social worker (LISW) with 35 years of clinical experience. She builds therapeutic alliances and connects with people while exploring their emotional lives and histories, working across individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats.

Her career includes work in a community mental health agency and an agency serving adolescents and their families, and she has maintained a private practice for thirty years. Trained as a dancer, she increasingly weaves simple, movement-based ideas into psychotherapy to explore the relationship between body and mind and to support healing and well-being.

Mary helps people who experience symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as those who present personality disorder traits, always with sensitivity to the effects of trauma and the potential for post-traumatic growth. She supports clients in developing awareness of autonomic nervous system states so they can identify cues of safety, and she uses trauma-focused skills such as EMDR and gentle movement to change how past toxic experiences relate to life in the present.

Grounded in developmental, cognitive, and attachment frameworks, Mary emphasizes gentleness and self-compassion as clients work to remediate trauma effects. She guides challenging work with a steady, supportive approach focused on healing and growth.

Therapeutic Approaches and Accessible Online Care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people clarify their values and take committed action even when difficult thoughts and feelings arise - it is useful for anxiety, depression, and life transitions. Attachment-Based Therapy examines patterns in close relationships and early caregiving to understand present-day difficulties in trust, intimacy, and emotional regulation - it helps with relationship challenges and attachment issues. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes a supportive, nonjudgmental therapeutic relationship in which the therapist follows the client’s lead to foster self-awareness and personal growth - it is often helpful for building self-esteem and coping skills.

The choice of approach is part of the therapeutic process. Mary works collaboratively with clients to identify which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, adjusting techniques over time as growth and healing unfold. Clients and therapists decide together what feels most useful.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility - sessions can take place by video call, over the phone, via live chat, or through text-based messaging - making it easier to fit care into busy schedules or manage mobility and geographic limits. Licensed professionals can adapt these methods to remote formats, allowing consistent, effective work on symptoms, relationships, and coping strategies while meeting clients where they are.