Denise Owen

Denise Owen is a licensed clinical social worker in North Carolina with a license held since 1993 and a career in social work that began with an undergraduate internship in 1986. She earned a Master of Social Work in 1990 and brings 34 years of clinical experience across inpatient and outpatient settings.

Her professional background includes work at a state psychiatric hospital in North Carolina, a medical hospital in South Carolina, a military base in Virginia, and multiple outpatient agencies in Pennsylvania. Over the past 29 years she has lived and worked in four states due to her husband’s job. Her caseload has covered a wide range of populations and concerns, including children with behavioral or developmental challenges, long-term psychiatric males, hospice patients, state and federal inmates, military service members and their families, survivors of domestic violence, people coping with addictions, grief, anxiety, and PTSD.

Although her foundational training centers on long-term psychiatric care, Denise continues professional development through seminars and conferences in medical, psychological, social work, and ethics topics to expand cultural awareness and clinical skills. She is not currently practicing in an inpatient setting.

Denise approaches therapy with client goals as the guiding principle, preferring to assess each individual first and then involve them in decisions about the therapeutic work to pursue. She emphasizes building rapport before beginning targeted interventions, following the idea to “Diagnose before prescribing.” When a particular approach does not fit, she will shift to another method until the client’s needs are met.

Outside of clinical practice she has taught in the homeschool network in South Carolina for 11 years, creating courses ranging from creative crafting and Egyptology to basic sign language, creative writing, and astronomy. She has also taught Psychology 101 and Sociology 101 at a community college in North Carolina. Denise is the author of two children’s books—“Turtle Gliding” (2009) and “Why Does God Pull Teeth?” (2018)—each inspired by one of her children.

Denise respects the courage it takes to seek counseling and likens therapy to going to the gym: the idea may feel difficult at first, but most people are glad they went once they start. Her practice addresses a broad spectrum of issues including stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties, grief, parenting, self-esteem, addictions, LGBT concerns, family conflict, trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, eating and sleeping disorders, anger management, career challenges, bipolar disorder, depression, coping with life changes, and ADHD.