Margaret Howard, MFA, LCSW
Bio

​​​Selected Publications and Interviews:
Afterword, in Brendon Abram's forthcoming book (North Atlantic Books/Penguin Random House) Teaching Trauma-Sensitive Yoga: A Practical Guide. Click here to pre-order.

Brendon Abram's book includes back-cover endorsements from David Emerson, the founder of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, and Mark Stephens, imminent yoga therapy trainer, practitioner, and author.

• Podcast Interview with Shannon Crow for The Connected Yoga Teacher, "Trauma Training For Every Yoga Teacher with Margaret Howard" 2017
• Interview with Gail Sheehy for Politico, "America's Therapists Are Worried About Trump's Affect On Your Mental Health" October, 2016
• Interview: Wisdom of the Wounded Healer, with The Breathe Network, August 19, 2015
• Yes! Magazine, August 26, 2014
• Huffington Post Interview, National Freedom Day, 2013
• The St. Louis Beacon, Commentary, 2013
• Huffington Post Live "How Big Data is Fighting Human Trafficking: Google, CNN, and Others Share Solutions

HuffPost Blog​ Click Here Includes:

• How to Not (Even Accidentally) Be a D**k When Your Person Has Anxiety
• Part I: Trauma Training Should Be Mandatory for Yoga Teachers
• Part II: Trauma Training Should Be Mandatory for Yoga Teachers
• ​Part III: Trauma Training Should Be Mandatory for Yoga Teachers​
• One Last Word on Yoga and Trauma
• Winter, the Puritans, and the Decolonization of Your Being
• How Memes Are Hurting Trauma Survivors
• 11 Healthy Ways to Grieve

​Training, Theory, and Orientation
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), licensed to practice in Missouri.
Master of Fine Arts in Writing (MFA)
Formal Education
Master of Social Work, Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, 2011
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2000
Bachelor of Science, University Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1994

Post-Graduate Trainings:

• EMDR 1 and 2, EMDR Therapist
• Somatic Experiencing (SE), One Year
• Many Depth and Jungian Workshops and Trainings, including in Dream Work
• Training in Mental Health Work with Veterans (I am an US Army veteran, 1979-1981)
• Various Trainings in Mainstream General Mental Health and Trauma
• ASSIST training in suicidality
• Multiple trainings in response to domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault

My theoretical and practice orientation is at the intersections of body psychology and Jungian-influenced depth and dream work, focusing clinically on trauma and anxiety in women.  This work is in relationship with the how trauma and anxiety express in the body, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious, and engages deep archetype and ancestry, all life including animals and plants, and the land, as well as the breadth of our families and communities. Theoretical influences include Van der Kolk, Ogden, Porjes, Estes. My orientation is in social justice, inclusiveness, and intersectional feminism.

Before embarking upon this work I was a professional writer, and college writing instructor, women's health advocate and aspiring midwife, journalist, technical writer, and very part time private chef.

Policy work has focused on advocating for effective and successful services to survivors of human trafficking, and prevention and deterrence. I'm not presently engaged in policy work.

I was born in Illinois, but have lived in several states in the US and a couple of European countries. I now live and work in St. Louis, Missouri.

I have studied spiritual disciplines, and worked with elders from those traditions, always being careful not to coopt, colonize, or romanticize. My professional work is to remain neutral spiritually and to respect and facilitate each person's belief or non-belief. However, spirituality and/or religion can be a part of therapy, if a person chooses. My personal orientation is animistic. 

I am a mother, grandmother, writer, musician. sustainable gardener, reader, writer, general nature freak, and proud-ass crone.



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