- Trauma-informed care
- Practical coping tools
- Focus on relationships
About Margaret
Margaret Joern is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 25 years of experience helping people through difficult emotional times. She focuses on depression, trauma and abuse, relationship struggles, and rebuilding self-esteem. Her work also addresses anxiety, stress, addictions, and life changes like midlife transitions.
She uses practical, evidence-informed methods to help people manage mood disorders and obsessive or compulsive behaviors. Sessions often include straightforward tools to reduce anxiety, cope with loss, and handle family of origin issues. She also supports those dealing with caregiver strain, compassion fatigue, and challenges common to veterans and first responders.
Codependency and difficulties around abandonment are part of her practice, and she helps clients understand patterns that keep them stuck. Margaret supports people working through domestic violence impacts, hoarding behaviors, impulsivity, and grief in clear, step-by-step ways. She works with people across the LGBT community and addresses concerns related to bipolar disorder and ADHD.
Her style is calm and nonjudgmental. She listens, helps clarify goals, and offers tools clients can try between sessions. Motivational interviewing and trauma-focused techniques are parts of her toolkit, along with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and EMDR where appropriate.
Margaret practices in Virginia and provides care in English. People who want to begin can use the Start Therapy button to complete a short matching questionnaire and then schedule sessions according to her availability.
Therapeutic approaches online and how they help
Margaret commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as part of her work. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and developing practical skills to change behavior and reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression. EMDR is a trauma-focused method that helps people process painful memories and reduce their emotional impact when trauma is a central concern.She also draws on Motivational Interviewing when people are ambivalent about change. This approach helps clarify values, build motivation, and set small achievable steps toward goals. These methods are used collaboratively; she works with each person to decide which approaches best match their needs and preferences.
If you are considering online therapy, confirm the current session options before booking since formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when schedules are tight. Discussing goals and trying a few sessions makes it possible to find the right approach and rhythm of work together.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
25+ years
Credentials
Virginia
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does she address?
She helps with depression, anxiety, relationship struggles, trauma and abuse, self-esteem, addictions, grief, bipolar issues, and stress related to life changes.
What is her therapeutic style like?
Her approach is calm and practical. She listens, helps set clear goals, and teaches tools people can use between sessions.
How much clinical experience does she have?
She brings 25 years of clinical work as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker to her practice, working with a range of mood and trauma-related concerns.
Where is she licensed and based?
She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in Virginia.
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Sessions are offered in English.
Does she take clients outside the United States?
She does not accept international clients at this time.
How does payment and cost work?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with her?
Use the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to her availability.
Profile details come from information the therapist supplied to BetterHelp. Credential and registration rules differ between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.