Dawn O'Regan

Dawn O'Regan, LISW, is a Licensed Independent Social Worker with 25 years of experience in both community mental health organizations and private practice settings. Based in Iowa, she brings a steady, practical perspective to helping adults navigate depression, anxiety, communication concerns, and interpersonal and intrapersonal relationship challenges. She also travels frequently with her life partner, which informs an appreciation for the real-life complexities that can shape routines, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Throughout her career, Dawn has worked in private group practice, established her own individual practice, and currently serves in a community mental health setting. Before graduate school, she spent four years working as a bachelor’s-level social worker and later achieved independent licensure in social work (LISW), a credential that reflects advanced training and authorization to practice independently.

Dawn’s therapy style is client-centered, grounded in the belief that clients are the experts on their own lives and that treatment works best when direction is chosen collaboratively. She often focuses on core building blocks of healthy relationships, including clear communication, emotional regulation, self-worth, compassion, insight, and the ability to recognize and express others’ strengths and emotions.

Using a strengths-based, solutions-focused lens, Dawn draws from multiple modalities to support meaningful change. With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), she helps clients look at the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to better understand patterns that may be contributing to distress or self-defeating beliefs. She also incorporates Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation. When clients are interested, she may integrate an internal family systems approach, which explores different internal “parts” that can be protective, stuck, or ready for growth as life evolves.

Outside of therapy, Dawn enjoys exercise, yoga, walking and hiking, and meditation practice outdoors. She values time with her life partner and their two dogs, and she is grateful for a supportive circle of family, friends, and colleagues.