Vicki Marcum, LCSW

Vicki Marcum is an Illinois licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with 40 years of clinical experience. She has two master's degrees, one in Community Health and one in Social Work. Vicki works with a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief, parenting, depression, relationship and family issues, eating and intimacy-related concerns, anger, self-esteem, career challenges, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and coping with life changes.

Vicki has practiced across many settings including inpatient psychiatry, outpatient community mental health, crisis and emergency intervention, schools, churches, social service agencies, and private practice. Her background includes case management, outpatient day treatment, extended day treatment programs, and work in the child welfare system. She has experience with people across the lifespan from childhood through older adulthood.

Her approach begins with a client-centered stance to build trust. Once a working relationship is established she uses other approaches that fit the issue and the person's style, drawing on attachment-based ideas, cognitive behavioral techniques, emotionally focused work, and existential perspectives. She emphasizes collaboration and helps people weigh options rather than prescribing solutions.

In sessions she balances openness with challenge. She describes the work as sometimes light and sometimes hard - there may be laughter, tears, and moments of disagreement. The focus stays on helping people clarify choices, change unhelpful patterns, and manage strong emotions such as anger.

Vicki asks clients to be active in their treatment and respects their agency in decision making. Practical problem solving and talking through next steps are typical parts of her work. For readers in Illinois, she offers services grounded in long clinical experience and varied clinical settings.

How her approaches translate to online work