About Margaret
Margaret Couch is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who helps people manage stress, anxiety, mood concerns, addiction struggles, parenting challenges, and relationship worries. She brings a steady, practical approach and over four decades of experience in mental health to each conversation.
Her work covers a wide range of issues including grief, trauma, self-esteem, sleep and eating difficulties, ADHD, and coping with life changes. Margaret meets people where they are and treats each person as more than a diagnosis.
Background and approach
She draws on client-centered care to listen closely, then uses practical strategies to reduce symptoms and build coping skills. Sessions focus on small, manageable steps that fit into daily life. She values each person's right to make their own choices and follows their pace.
In session she blends approaches such as cognitive behavioral techniques to change unhelpful thinking, dialectical behavior skills for emotion regulation, and elements of emotionally-focused work to strengthen attachment and connection. She also uses Gottman-based ideas when relationship patterns are part of the concern. The goal is straightforward: find what helps and keep doing it.
Margaret's license is LCSW in Illinois and she has a master’s degree in education as well as many years of practice. Over 41 years in the field have given her experience with varied life situations and complex needs. She prefers clear, respectful communication and practical tools that people can try between sessions.
People who choose her can expect an experienced, calm clinician who listens first and offers usable steps next. She welcomes conversations about goals and adjusts approaches to fit what each person needs.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and following the person's lead. In practice this means sessions begin by understanding what matters most, then shaping goals together to match daily life and values. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, helps people identify thought and behavior patterns that increase distress and replaces them with more helpful habits; it is often used for anxiety, depression, sleep and eating issues. Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, teaches concrete skills for tolerating strong emotions, managing stress, and improving relationships, which can be useful for mood instability and intense reactions.Margaret treats the choice of approach as a collaborative process. She will discuss options, explain how different methods work, and try practical techniques together in early sessions. The plan can change as goals and preferences become clearer, and she adapts methods to each person's pace and needs.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy lives. Video calls let people talk face-to-face when visual cues help. Phone sessions or live chat fit shorter check-ins or times with lower bandwidth. Text-based messaging can support ongoing coaching, homework check-ins, or quick skill reminders between sessions. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while balancing work, caregiving, and other commitments.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Bipolar disorder
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 41 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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