Mary Blankenburg

Mary Blankenburg is a licensed independent social worker (LISW) with 35 years of clinical experience. She focuses on building a strong therapeutic relationship first, then helps people address stress, anxiety, depression, and eating and food-related concerns. Her manner is calm and steady, aimed at making difficult topics easier to talk about.

Mary's background includes many years in community mental health, work with adolescents and families, and three decades in private practice in Iowa. That range gives her experience with a wide variety of life challenges, from grief and trauma to career stress and relationship strain. She draws on practical approaches clients can use between sessions.

Her style blends attention to feelings with attention to the body. Mary uses movement and awareness of bodily states alongside talking and skill-building. This helps people notice how stress shows up in the body and learn ways to respond differently.

She uses methods such as acceptance and commitment strategies, attachment-informed work, client-centered listening, cognitive-behavioral tools, and skills from dialectical behavior approaches. Those tools are adapted to each person's needs and comfort level.

Mary emphasizes gradual change and self-kindness. She supports people working through trauma effects, grief, addiction, and challenges like panic, ADHD, and body image concerns. Her goal is to help clients find clearer choices and steadier ways of coping.

Therapeutic approaches and how they translate online

Mary often uses acceptance and commitment approaches to help people clarify values and build small, practical steps toward change. That method focuses on noticing thoughts and choosing actions that match what matters most. Attachment-based work looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and helps people practice different ways of relating and feeling safer in connections.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Mary will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals and comfort level. Together they review what helps, try different tools, and adjust the plan as needs change.

If you want online options, confirm current session types before booking because the biography does not list formats. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy day, reduce travel time, or allow a shorter check-in when schedules are tight. It also supports continuing therapy between life transitions and lets people use the same therapeutic approaches - like skill practice, emotional awareness, and movement-based exercises - in a way that fits their routine.