Mary Blankenburg
Therapy that combines relationship and practical skills
- Credentials
- LISW
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed in
- Iowa
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mary
Mary Blankenburg is a licensed independent social worker with 35 years of experience. She frames therapy around the relationship she builds with each person and pays attention to how past experiences shape current feelings and choices. Mary speaks plainly and helps clients notice what their bodies and minds are doing in moments of stress.
Her background includes work in community mental health, adolescent services, and long-standing independent practice in Iowa.
Background and approach
Mary draws on a mix of practical approaches to help people manage anxiety, depression, grief, and stress. She also addresses issues such as addiction, relationship and family concerns, intimacy-related problems, and challenges linked to ADHD and bipolar symptoms. Sessions often include straightforward skills training as well as attention to patterns that began in earlier relationships.
Her style is collaborative and gentle. She encourages increased self-kindness and helps people relearn signals of safety in their bodies. For those affected by trauma, Mary uses paced, trauma-aware techniques and movement-informed practices to reduce reactivity and build new coping responses.
In a typical meeting she helps clients name feelings, test unhelpful thoughts, practice new behaviors, and develop routines that support daily functioning. Therapy aims to make small, manageable changes that add up over time. Mary balances skill teaching with exploring attachment and meaning so people can move forward with more ease.
Clients in Iowa will find an experienced clinician who favors clear, practical steps and an empathetic presence. She focuses on steady progress and on helping people reclaim more balance in their lives.
Approaches you can use in online sessions
Mary blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Attachment-Based Therapy in ways that translate well to remote work. CBT focuses on identifying and testing unhelpful thoughts and practicing new behaviors to reduce anxiety and depression. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns affect current connections and helps people change repeating dynamics.She often pairs these with Client-Centered principles, offering a respectful, nonjudgmental stance while working together to choose the right mix of methods. Finding the best approach is a collaborative process - the therapist and client review goals, try techniques, and adjust over time to match needs and preferences.
Online therapy with Mary uses video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make sessions flexible. These formats let people fit therapy into busy schedules, practice skills between meetings, and stay connected from home or work. The options support steady progress through brief check-ins, longer skill-building sessions, or a blend that suits each person.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- 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
Therapeutic approaches
- 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
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- Iowa
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mary
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point