Margaret Swanson, LICSW

Margaret Swanson, LICSW, helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, and midlife transitions. She sees issues like grief, parenting strain, career crossroads, and trauma. Her style is steady and compassionate, aimed at helping people find practical steps forward.

Margaret uses straightforward conversations to build self-awareness and coping skills. She listens for patterns that make life harder and gently challenges unhelpful thinking. Sessions focus on small, manageable changes that fit into daily life. She also emphasizes communication skills and ways to reduce overwhelm.

With 25 years of experience, Margaret draws on several therapy methods to match each person’s needs. She blends practical tools with attention to emotions and relationships. That mix helps people tackle everything from persistent anxiety to complicated grief.

Many come to her for support during career shifts, parenting pressures, or relationship concerns. She also works with people managing chronic illness, caregiving stress, ADHD, and identity questions. The aim is to help clients gain more clarity, steadiness, and direction.

Margaret practices in Vermont as a licensed clinical social worker in both Vermont and New Hampshire. She offers care in English and asks new clients to complete a short questionnaire to begin. The process is collaborative and paced to each person’s comfort.

Therapeutic approaches and online options

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people clarify what matters to them and take small steps toward those values while learning to tolerate hard thoughts and feelings. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thinking and shifting behavior patterns to reduce symptoms like anxiety and low mood. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at relationship patterns that began early in life and how they affect current connections and emotional safety.

Margaret treats finding the right approach as a collaborative task. She will talk with each person about goals, what has helped before, and what feels doable. Together they choose techniques to try and check in on how those approaches are working over time.

Confirm current session options before booking because formats are not listed here. In general, online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life - for example, it can reduce commuting time, allow a shorter check-in during a work break, or make sessions simpler to schedule around caregiving duties. If a person prefers not to be on camera, other arrangements can sometimes be discussed. Practical considerations like quieter surroundings, internet bandwidth, and scheduling will guide which session type is recommended.