Margaret Elkins , LPCC

Margaret Elkins is a licensed professional clinical counselor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and struggles with addiction. She also supports those coping with relationship and family tensions, body image concerns, and career-related stress. Her clear, steady presence aims to make difficult topics easier to talk through.

Margaret brings seven years as a licensed therapist and a longer history in mental health work. She earned a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from Eastern Kentucky University and practices as an LPCC in Kentucky. She has experience working with trauma and abuse and supporting people through loss and major life transitions.

In sessions she uses practical strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy to identify patterns that keep problems going. She also draws on dialectical behavior therapy skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance when feelings run high. Motivational interviewing helps when someone is unsure about change or needs to strengthen their motivation.

Margaret uses eye movement desensitization and reprocessing as one option when trauma memories are causing ongoing distress. She combines approaches to fit each person’s concerns and goals rather than relying on a single method.

Clients can expect direct communication, skill building, and teamwork toward manageable steps. She talks plainly about routines, coping tools, and ways to reduce overwhelm. The emphasis is on progress that fits each person’s life and pace.

How therapeutic approaches translate to online care

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and changing behaviors that keep problems going. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress by practicing concrete exercises and small behavior changes.

DBT, dialectical behavior therapy, teaches skills for managing strong emotions and reducing impulsive reactions. It includes breathing and grounding techniques, emotion regulation tools, and communication skills that can be used between sessions.

EMDR offers a structured way to process distressing memories that keep surfacing after trauma. When appropriate, elements of EMDR can be introduced alongside other therapies to reduce the intensity of traumatic memories.

Choosing the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk through goals, preferences, and current challenges to decide which methods to try first. Plans are adjusted over time based on what helps most.

Online therapy makes it possible to meet by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for deeper conversation and skill practice, phone works well if bandwidth is limited, chat or text can support brief check-ins or between-session support, and all formats offer flexibility to fit work and family schedules.