About Barbara
Barbara "Barb" Kroening offers a calm, straightforward presence for people feeling overwhelmed. She invites honest conversation and focuses on practical support. Barb emphasizes meeting people where they are and helping them take small, useful steps forward.
Barb is a Licensed Independent Social Worker, LISW, practicing in Iowa with 12 years of experience. She works with a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, bipolar mood challenges, and ADHD.
Background and approach
Her style is direct and nonjudgmental; she aims to create space for people to speak openly about what is hardest right now. In sessions she uses client-centered methods to follow each person's priorities and build on strengths. She also draws on mindfulness to help people notice thoughts and bodily reactions, and on solution-focused strategies to identify specific, achievable goals.
Motivational interviewing is part of how she supports readiness to change. Barb has experience addressing trauma and related issues, including domestic violence and complicated grief. She has worked with people facing caregiver stress, first responder strain, immigration-related concerns, and problems that affect daily routines like sleeping and anger.
Practical help is central to her approach: developing coping plans, clarifying priorities, and practicing brief skills in session. She encourages honest feedback so therapy stays useful and aligned with each person's goals.
How her approach works online
Barb commonly uses client-centered work and mindfulness in online sessions. Client-centered therapy means she listens closely to what matters most to the person and follows their lead when setting goals. Mindfulness practices teach simple ways to notice thoughts, calm the body, and reduce reactivity in stressful moments.She also uses motivational interviewing to help people clarify mixed feelings about change and find their own reasons to act. These methods can help with anxiety, stress, sleep problems, ADHD-related challenges, and recovery from trauma by focusing on clear steps and present-moment awareness.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the process. Barb will collaborate with each person to choose techniques that fit their goals, preferences, and daily life. She invites feedback so the work can shift if something isn’t helping.
Online therapy offers flexibility for different routines and needs. Video calls let you work face to face from wherever you are. Phone sessions can be useful when bandwidth is limited or you prefer not to use video. Live chat and text-based messaging allow short check-ins, brief coaching moments, or notes between sessions to keep progress moving.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Domestic violence
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 12 years
- Licensed
- Iowa
- Languages
- English
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