Specialties
Couples Counseling, Family Therapy with Teens, Family Therapy with Adult Children, Narrative Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Sand Tray Therapy
Consultations
Mary offers free consultations, please contact her to see if you all are a good fit.
About Mary
A clinician with IPNB Psychotherapy of Austin, Mary loves working with couples and has training in RLT and ETT. She brings life experience, as well as a kind heart to her couples work. Her graduate work focused on substance abuse, so Mary is comfortable assisting with couples and individuals who struggle with substance abuse as part of their whole picture. Mary also specializes in life transitions that occur later in life, such as grief issues, job changes, and caregiving duties that often fall in our laps as we get older. She is warm, playful, and curious, which clients report helps them feel met and seen while enjoying therapy, even when it's hard.
Q&A with Mary Osborne
How does talking to someone help?
It can be so incredibly hard to identify your external and internal obstacles all on your own. Sometimes, saying it out loud, especially in a place that is about helping you feel seen and nurtured can enable you to see yourself in a completely different light, with more compassion and clarity. It works just as well for families and couples, as it does for individuals. When I do couple and family therapy I am not refereeing, I am helping everyone see how to make moves that are as relationally healthy as possible so that everyone can feel welcomed and supported.
What is your first question for a client, and why?
Starting a new session, it is imperative to understand clients' perspectives and how their journeys brought them to where they are today. I like to ask my clients to "Tell me about yourselves and what brought you here today," this allows me to learn and understand someone’s whole story. Being able to understand the journey that brought you to where you are today can help you gain perspective on what your next path is.
What is the best thing you have learned from one of your people?
From listening to my client's family interactions, I learned that their support can have a significant positive impact on the therapy process. When an adolescent's family started attending therapy with their daughter, they learned about the underlying issues that lead to substance abuse. Family therapy allowed every member to develop a greater capacity for compassion and empathy of each other. Receiving compassion and support from her family lead to fast healing for the daughter.