Mary Messerschmidt
Calm, practical therapy focused on life and parenting
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed in
- Virginia
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mary
Mary Messerschmidt is a licensed clinical social worker in Virginia with 25 years of experience. She focuses on practical help for problems like anxiety, depression, addiction, relationship and intimacy issues, parenting, and stress. She also works with people facing grief, trauma, bipolar mood challenges, ADHD, and LGBT-related concerns.
Mary aims for a straightforward, respectful approach that treats each person as an individual. Her sessions are usually collaborative and down-to-earth. She listens first, then offers tools that fit the person’s life.
Background and approach
That can mean short skills practice, shifting unhelpful thoughts, or working on communication between partners. Mary recently added life coaching to her practice, which she blends with therapy when goals are present. Mary draws from several well-established methods to guide the work.
She uses cognitive behavioral techniques to uncover patterns that keep problems going. She offers acceptance and commitment ideas to focus on values and action. Attachment-based ideas are used when early relationships affect current connections.
Clients can expect clear explanations and simple homework when it helps. Sessions aim to build coping skills for stress, anger, and substance-related concerns. Mary also works with issues like abandonment, adoption and foster care history, caregiver stress, codependency, and domestic violence when relevant.
She practices under the credential LCSW, which stands for Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Sessions are conducted in English and are provided through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. To begin, a short matching questionnaire is completed and scheduling follows the therapist’s availability.
Approaches used in online sessions and how they help
Mary commonly uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which focuses on noticing unhelpful thoughts and choosing actions that match personal values. It can help when someone wants to move forward despite worry or strong emotions. She also draws on Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early relationship patterns affect current bonds and communication. That work can be useful for people who struggle with closeness or trust issues.Choosing the right approach is part of the work itself. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online therapy with Mary is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs. These formats make scheduling more flexible and let people continue therapy from home, during busy weeks, or while traveling. The variety also allows more frequent check-ins or shorter skill-focused contacts when that suits the plan.
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
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Intimacy-related issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Virginia
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mary
- Takes a few minutes to look through
- Nothing to set up just to read
- Stop at any point