Mary-Margaret Sweeney, MSW, LCSW

Mary-Margaret (she/her) believes education can change the world. This is the ethos through which she approaches her work as a yoga teacher, writer, sex educator, non-profit consultant, and therapist. Engaging with her as a therapy client will get you a little bit of all of these pursuits. Mary-Margaret journeys alongside clients (individuals and couples) as they work toward living their fullest, best life possible.

Mary-Margaret is located and licensed as a clinical social worker (LCSW) in the state of Indiana. She earned her Master of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work and attended University of Michigan to earn her certificate in sex therapy and her certificate in sex education. Her training and clinical expertise include supporting LGBTQ+ clients; transgender clients as they navigate sex and intimacy during transition; desire discrepancy in couples; assessment of sexual functioning concerns particularly in those assigned female at birth; helping sero-discordant couples navigate sexual intimacy; rebuilding sex and intimacy after sexual abuse and trauma, and supporting partners of trauma survivors. Her practice is informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Gottman couples work, and a lot of psycho- and sex education. She is a proud member of American Academy of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT).

Mary-Margaret believes our sexuality to be an integral, foundational piece of ourselves that we all have a right to own, explore, and make meaning of. Doing this reclamation work is challenging, fighting against all of the cultural messages we receive from the time of our birth. In addition to the reverence for this intense work, 15 years of experience and education, Mary-Margaret also believes it is crucial to approach sexuality with a sense of pleasure and fun (see photo above!). ​

Mary-Margaret believes in the power of therapy to create life-sustaining practices that improve quality of life, in spite of the grief we face as minority community members, and anyone paying attention to the state of our world. She asks her clients to live with intention, working with them to create lives of meaning that are value-aligned and led. She believes in this approach due to her training and ongoing investment in research, and living her own life in this way. She does not believe in asking clients to do hard work she has not done or is not willing to do herself.

Outside of running her therapy practice, Mary-Margaret is an obsessed reader, documentary watcher, lover of travel and living out of a 40 liter backpack for weeks at a time in foreign cities without an agenda. She often has her best treatment planning ideas while lifting weights at the gym. Her 2022 goal is to spend at least 30 minutes outdoors each day, as well as 30 minutes a day in physical movement. A perfect weekend day means she has had dirt under her nails from repotting plants or working in the yard, as well as dough from time in the kitchen, and leaving those dirty and doughy fingerprints on the pages of a book.