Margaret McNeal

Margaret McNeal (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Supervisor: Dr. Ingrid Rose, LPC #C3057

I offer a holistic, somatic, depth-oriented approach to help you make sustainable changes and create meaning in your life.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

971.258.0238

1923 NE Broadway St

Unit 7

Portland, OR 97232

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $80-$140

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2020

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket

My Ideal Client

Many of my clients are HSPs (Highly Sensitive People), highly intelligent, or creative types. I often work with complex PTSD/family-of-origin trauma, supporting my clients to overcome depression, anxiety, self-criticism, and abuse to enter a new chapter of life and wellbeing. Frequently, I work with Quarterlifers (20–30years old), helping them navigate the challenges of the adult world. I also work with clients interested in personal growth through meaning-making, somatic, and intuitive work.

My Approach to Helping

Holistic psychotherapy is MORE than talk therapy. It’s embodied, engaged, experiential, and intuitive. Yes, we will explore your personal history—but, moreover, our focus is on you in the present moment, moving forward by helping you heal, thrive, and live your truth. My approach integrates advanced depth and psychodynamic psychotherapy, neurobiology, IFS, expressive arts, mindfulness, spirituality, and somatic practices to tailor each session uniquely to you. If you’ve tried therapy before and it hasn’t worked, know that you’re not alone, and my approach to therapy may be different from what you’ve experienced—in a good way. I am a warm and direct therapist, here to support and also to challenge you—always with respect and care. I bring a sense of humor and play, and I share my own experiences, when they can benefit you. Above all, I will get into the tough stuff with you to help find a way through.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

I am passionate about the way that therapeutic encounter can animate and inspire life, going beneath the surface and into the realm of soulful healing and potential. Integrative, holistic therapy reminds us of our unique and embodied nature and serves as a space to engage the deeper questions, patterns, and callings of life. I have a special passion for supporting clients with chronic illness, having experienced chronic illness myself. Prior to becoming a therapist, I trained as a musician and performer and I enjoy working with creativity. Many of my clients have experienced profound life changes—healing from trauma, letting go of toxic relationships, outgrowing old patterns, relating with others more authentically, integrating difficult experiences, claiming personal power, deepening intuition, building self-esteem, discovering belonging, living life from center, learning to play and find ease—and I want the same for you! I offer a free consult. Reach out and see if we're a good fit.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Humanistic  External link

    We are each unique expressions of nature held in complex interrelationships with one another and world around us. I approach our work holistically and see clients as unique and whole people—not as constellations of symptoms, not with a one-size-fits-all approach. I believe in your intrinsic wisdom and goodness, in the intelligence of the body and psyche, and see my role as therapist as that of a collaborative and skillful guide with you in the driver's seat.

  • Depth Therapy External link

    Depth therapy includes psychodynamic and transpersonal approaches to psychotherapy—meaning, we will look beneath the surface level of your symptoms to discover how to heal and integrate, as well as discover threads of meaning woven through your inner and outer experiences that connect you with the web of life. We may use parts work, relationship, dreams, body, art, and the "here-and-now"/present-centered approaches in therapy.

  • Somatic Therapy (Body Centered) External link

    The body is an essential aspect of our self and wellbeing. Modern science echoes the wisdom held in many ancient traditions that the body is integral to our psychology, that psyche and soma are not separate. Somatic work can powerfully reveal and heal hidden aspects of our experience through exploration of movement, posture, and symptoms. Somatic work is also a useful complement to trauma work and IFS/"parts work" that helps facilitate regulation and expansion of the self.

  • Psychodynamic  External link

    Unlike symptom-focused, brief therapeutic modalities, psychodynamic therapy is proven to create sustained, lasting change. Psychodynamic therapy facilitates self-exploration, understanding relationship patterns, and examining emotional blind spots; by addressing root cause, symptoms can shift. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/01/psychodynamic-therapy#:~:text=Psychodynamic%20therapy%20focuses%20on%20the,patterns%20in%20the%20patient's%20life.

  • Eclectic External link

    Our work will be unique to you. I draw from many different modalities depending on the client, including aspects of Internal Family Systems "parts work", sensorimotor psychotherapy (body-based trauma work), gestalt, role-play, attachment theory, neurobiology, process-oriented psychology (Process Work), creative arts, etc.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Self-Esteem External link

    Self-Esteem issues are often rooted in the unconscious and tied to messages from our personal history or the dominant culture. Together, we will uncover and shift the hidden dynamics bringing you down. Be it an inner critic or internalized abuse, we will work to create a more compassionate and empowering relationship with yourself that sees and celebrates your gifts, helping to bring them to fruition.

  • Anxiety External link

    Anxiety benefits from a "roots" and "branches" approach. We will work to create safety, grounding, and your capacity for self-regulation, while also exploring the underlying, unique, unconscious context from which anxiety occurs. By unfolding the particular qualities of your anxiety and understanding where it originates and what it wants, we will work toward long lasting change, freeing the energy back into the flow of your life.

  • Personal Growth External link

    Personal growth is an exploratory process towards becoming more congruent: a state of alignment between beliefs, values, actions, and speech; an integrative interrelationship between our worldly and soul selves. Therapy is geared towards actualizing the highest possible good within yourself in the world, and to deepening your experience of life and meaning. Through relationships, dreams, body experiences, mindfulness, art, and more, we will explore and expand your unique nature and awareness.

  • Chronic Pain or Illness External link

    During my early 20s, I suffered from Lyme disease. It can be challenging to find a therapist sympathetic to health challenges, I know. Chronic illness can affect every aspect of one's life and identity. Together, we will tend both your outer and inner experiences of illness. In doing so, we will learn the language of the body and bring awareness to messages and meaning in your symptoms, while supporting you through daily challenges, too.

  • Personal Growth External link

    Immigration is a challenging process that impacts every aspect of experience and identity. In my personal life, I am married to a South American immigrant and we have navigated the immigration process together. Additionally, life has led me into many cross-cultural experiences and I have tremendous respect for other cultural ways of knowing and being. Together, we can help ease and find meaning in your transition into a new culture, helping you grow while staying connected to yourself.

Contact Margaret

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