Barbara "Barb" Kroening , LISW

Barbara "Barb" Kroening offers straightforward, down-to-earth support for people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, parenting challenges, or struggles with addiction. She welcomes honest conversations and meets people where they are. Barb aims to create a calm space for people to talk through what’s weighing on them and to plan small, practical steps forward.

Barb is an LISW - Licensed Independent Social Worker - with 12 years of professional experience working in Iowa. She has helped people with relationship and intimacy concerns, mood disorders such as depression and bipolar, and coping with big life changes. Her background includes work alongside immigration-affected communities and with people who have experienced substance use and anger issues.

In sessions she uses a client-centered approach that focuses on what each person needs right now. She also draws on mindfulness practices to help with stress and sleep, and uses solution-focused and motivational techniques to set achievable goals. For people processing trauma she incorporates trauma-focused work to address painful memories at a pace that feels manageable.

Barb supports people dealing with caregiver stress, codependency, blended family issues, and isolation or loneliness. She also works with concerns such as hoarding, forgiveness, and end-of-life caregiving. Her aim is to listen carefully, reduce overwhelm, and help people find clearer choices.

Conversations are practical and collaborative. Barb helps people break larger problems into small steps and builds on strengths they already have. She encourages realistic change and offers steady guidance along the way.

How Barb’s approaches translate to online therapy

Barb often uses client-centered work, which means sessions focus on the person's needs and priorities. In this approach the therapist listens carefully and follows the client's pace, helping them name goals and make decisions that feel right.

She also uses Mindfulness Therapy to teach simple breathing and attention exercises that reduce stress and improve sleep. These practices can be shown and practiced easily over video or guided in a phone or chat session. Motivational Interviewing is another tool she uses to help people find their own reasons for change and to build small, realistic steps toward those goals.

Choosing the right approach is a team effort. Barb will talk with the client about their concerns, goals, and preferences and then suggest a blend of methods that fit. That plan can change as progress is made or needs shift, and she will check in regularly to make sure the work feels useful.

Online therapy offers flexibility for different schedules and needs. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation and practicing skills together. Phone sessions can work well when a quieter connection or less bandwidth is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging let people do shorter check-ins, send notes between sessions, or communicate when typing fits better than talking.