Mary Gales-Wenz
Compassionate, experienced therapist for family concerns
- Credentials
- LICSW
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed in
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mary
Mary Gales-Wenz is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with four decades of experience. She uses practical, person-focused methods to help people manage stress, anxiety, addiction, trauma, grief, and depression. Her style aims to make therapy clear and useful for busy families.
Mary practices in Minnesota and speaks English. She trained with a Master’s degree in social work and spent twenty years at the Department of Veterans Affairs in St.
Background and approach
Cloud and Minneapolis, working in both outpatient and inpatient settings. After that she provided mental health services at Hazelden Center for Youth and Families, Allina Behavioral Health Clinics, and Central MN Mental Health Clinics. She also supervised residential treatment for the Department of Corrections and worked in behavioral healthcare management for a local Minnesota insurance company.
Since 2009 she has maintained a small independent practice while staying current with new research and treatment methods. Her work has involved adults, seniors, and adolescents in chemical dependency and mental health treatment, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and trauma-related care. She has a longstanding interest in the connection between mind and body and in therapies that make that link easier to understand.
Mary is trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy, a method focused on processing emotional and memory-based reactions. She also draws on Client-Centered, Cognitive Behavioral, Dialectical Behavior, Emotionally-Focused, and Mindfulness therapies to shape sessions around each person’s needs. Her goal is to help people find strategies they can use at home and in daily life.
Therapy sessions are offered through a subscription model and can be scheduled to fit different routines. Prospective clients can complete a short matching questionnaire to get started and arrange sessions based on availability.
How therapeutic approaches fit into online sessions
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and following the person’s priorities. The therapist creates space for people to talk through their concerns and helps them find their own solutions, which can be especially useful for stress, grief, or life changes.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect. It teaches practical skills for changing unhelpful thinking and behavior, which can help with anxiety, depression, and many everyday problems.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, known as DBT, emphasizes skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships. It includes techniques for coping under pressure and for regulating intense feelings.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the person about their goals, what has worked in the past, and what feels manageable now. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust them as therapy progresses.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet - video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit sessions into family schedules, attend from different locations in Minnesota, or keep working on skills between appointments.
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.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- LGBT
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Somatization
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mary
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point