About Mary
Mary Van Hooser, LISW, helps people who feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or stuck. She listens first and lets people set the pace for talking about their struggles. Her style is calm and straightforward, aimed at making conversations less stigmatizing and more useful.
With 35 years as a social worker in mental health, Mary draws on long experience across many challenges. She has supported people coping with anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, bipolar disorder, grief, and anger.
Background and approach
She also helps with caregiver stress, first responder issues, and concerns that come from prejudice or isolation. Mary uses client-centered work to focus on each person's needs and values. She also applies cognitive behavioral techniques to spot unhelpful thinking and DBT skills to manage strong emotions.
Mindfulness and existential approaches are woven in to help people notice the present moment and clarify what matters most. Her background includes lived experience with family mental illness and addiction, and she is a veteran who understands military culture. That experience informs a nonjudgmental stance and practical support for people affected by similar issues.
Sessions cover building coping skills, problem solving, and finding ways to live more fully in the community. Mary aims to help people feel safer, gain strength from sharing their story, and take small steps toward clearer goals.
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Mary often uses client-centered therapy to focus on each person’s goals and values. This approach means sessions begin with listening closely and following the client’s lead to identify what matters and what feels most pressing. It helps people who want a respectful, individualized conversation about their concerns.She also applies cognitive behavioral therapy, which looks at patterns of thinking and behavior that keep problems going. CBT provides concrete strategies to test unhelpful thoughts and develop different habits, and it can be useful for anxiety, depression, and mood concerns. Mary may also draw on dialectical behavior therapy skills when emotional regulation and intense reactions are getting in the way of daily life.
Choosing an approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals, and preferences, and then try methods that fit best. Adjustments are made over time so the plan stays practical and useful.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls let people work face to face, phone sessions can work when lower bandwidth is needed, and text or chat allow quick check-ins or shorter communications between appointments. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and different schedules.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Compassion fatigue
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- Ohio
- Languages
- English
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