About Mary
Mary Lee Palmer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 41 years of experience. She blends practical therapy methods with a warm, conversational style to help people facing anxiety, depression, relationship strain, and issues like phobias and addictions. She writes and talks plainly with clients and keeps sessions direct and focused on change.
Over four decades, she has worked in psychiatric hospitals and independent practice. That background includes leading parent groups, adolescent daily groups, and family therapy work on a child and adolescent unit.
Background and approach
She was also director of child and adolescent services at a hospital in Atlanta. Her clinical work has included supporting people through trauma, emotional abuse, chronic conditions, and bipolar disorder. She has worked with a wide age range of clients.
Her approach tends to be interactive and sometimes playful, while staying respectful and sensitive. Mary uses a mix of Client-Centered methods, cognitive-behavioral techniques, mindfulness, psychodynamic ideas, and emotionally focused ideas when helpful. She focuses on individual needs when shaping a plan and avoids labeling people.
Sessions aim to be straightforward and tied to specific goals. She encourages anyone ready to try therapy to take that first step. Prospective clients complete a short matching questionnaire and then schedule a time that fits.
Mary offers sessions that can suit different lifestyles and rhythms.
How Mary’s Approaches Work Online
Mary integrates Client-Centered Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in a way that fits online sessions. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and following the person's lead to build trust and clarity; it helps with relationship concerns, self-esteem, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at patterns of thought and behavior and teaches concrete strategies to reduce worry, change unhelpful habits, and manage anxiety or phobias. She also draws on Emotionally-Focused ideas when emotions are central to relationship rifts or intense personal reactions. This approach helps people name emotions, understand their role, and practice new ways of responding in close relationships. Together these approaches offer both feeling-focused work and practical skills training. Finding the right mix is part of the work. Mary collaborates with each person to decide which approaches to try first based on goals and what feels most helpful. She checks progress and adjusts the plan so sessions remain relevant and manageable. Online formats offer practical benefits. Video calls let therapists notice facial cues and work through interactive exercises. Phone sessions can be lower bandwidth and easier to fit into a work break. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for quick check-ins, ongoing coaching, or shorter reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while matching how someone prefers to communicate.Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- 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
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 41 years
- Licensed
- Georgia
- Languages
- English
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