Dr. Bluhm’s undergraduate studies, completed in 1981, focused on European languages and literature as well as visual arts. While making inroads in the creation and dissemination of her art, and during a period of two years when she was leading support groups in Grand Rapids, Michigan for “displaced homemakers” for the Women’s Resource Center, Dr. Bluhm became engaged in a process of redetermining the direction of her work. She completed a Master of Social Work degree at Western Michigan University in 1991 and then began studies independently in the fields of attachment and trauma recovery. Influenced in part by the earlier work of Judith Herman, one of the pioneers in our current understanding the long term effects of childhood trauma, Dr. Bluhm began to specialize in trauma recovery and in the design of group therapy programs for women who had experienced childhood sexual abuse. Leading up to her doctoral studies at the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, Dr. Bluhm’s training and practice background has been broadly focused, including providing individual, family and group therapy in community mental health settings with an extensive knowledge base in the areas of Developmental Theory and Complex Trauma with particular concern for the long-term effects of trauma on one’s sense of self in relationship.

Dr. Bluhm strives to provide an emotionally safe, collaborative psychotherapy experience where you can freely say what you need to say. In doing so you can find emotional relief as well as clarity of meaning about yourself and your life. While assisting with skills for reducing emotional distress, Dr. Bluhm emphasizes depth exploration in psychotherapy to deepen your awareness of yourself and your world, and to realize an evolving sense of self which transcends the limits of simply just getting through day by day.

Dr. Bluhm has a particular interest in helping individuals work through interpersonal trauma, problems with trust, anxiety, depression, shame, integrating mind/body awareness, major life transitions, loss, and grief. Her practice incorporates a wide scope of training and is built upon nearly 30 years of psychotherapy practice. Dr. Bluhm believes our most growth-enhancing experiences happen in relationships in families, with friends, in work and in love, and in the community. She believes that the experience of truly being recognized and heard can be transformative and that the right psychotherapy relationship can be a relationship that changes your life.

Dr. Margaret Bluhm is Licensed to see patients in Michigan, Illinois & New Mexico.