Margaret Swanson, LICSW

Margaret Swanson is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addictions, and major life changes. She practices in Vermont and brings 25 years of experience to her work. Her focus includes concerns such as caregiving strain, parenting challenges, LGBT issues, and aging and geriatric issues.

Margaret uses a gentle, direct style in sessions. She listens first to understand what matters most to each person. Then she helps clients set small, concrete goals and build practical skills to manage intense emotions and daily pressures.

Her approach draws on several therapeutic methods, including cognitive behavioral techniques to shift unhelpful thinking and acceptance-based practices to clarify values and move toward them. Attachment-based ideas help when relationships and connection are the core concerns.

Margaret often focuses on communication skills, stress reduction strategies, and planning for life transitions. She supports people working through grief, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and career or identity shifts. Sessions tend to emphasize step-by-step progress rather than quick fixes.

Over her career she has worked with a broad range of issues from trauma and abuse to ADHD and bipolar mood concerns. She aims to create a steady, nonjudgmental space where people can explore their feelings, try new coping tools, and build clearer plans for change.

Approaches that guide online work

Margaret often draws on cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in her practice. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on noticing and testing thoughts and behaviors so people can reduce distress and change patterns that cause problems. Acceptance and commitment therapy helps people identify what matters to them and take small steps toward those values even when emotions are difficult.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. She treats therapy as a collaboration and will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what techniques feel most useful. Together they decide whether to focus on skills practice, values-based action, or relationship work.

If you are considering online therapy, confirm current session options before booking since formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, shorten travel time, and allow check-ins from different locations. It also lets people try skill practice and behavior experiments between meetings so therapy can fit real life rather than stay only in the office.