Counseling Approach
- Sex Therapy, Couple, Family, Adult, & Teen Therapy
- Certified Sex Therapist with American Association of Sexuality Educators,
Counselors, and Therapists - Licensed Professional Counselor MO & KS
- Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist MO & KS
- American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists Clinical Member
I enjoy working collaboratively with you to find solutions to your issues in as short a time frame as possible, which is usually 4 to 10 sessions for individuals and 6 to 12 sessions for couples.
I consider myself to be an active-directive therapist. I give you empathy, respect, and understanding along with feedback, suggestions, and things to practice at home. I am NOT one of those therapists who just sits and listens without giving you any input. When working with couples, I don’t take sides and I love to help you turn your relationship around or rekindle the love you once had. I will help you find solutions that worked for you in the past and teach you new tools and how to apply them to your problems. I also enjoy helping you find your strengths as an individual or couple. When it is appropriate, I like to inject some fun and humor into our work. If you are open to it, I coach you to access your spiritual resources and develop new ones. I use my 20 plus years experience with counseling and my personal experience to help you accomplish the goals you set for counseling. My holistic, systems approach takes into account all aspects of you as a person or couple and your support systems.
For couples, I often use an assessment instrument called Prepare-Enrich, which is the most researched couple instrument available and has been taken by over 3 million couples. It points out your strengths and areas of growth, while being an objective instrument that gives you a current assessment of the “state of your union.” I also help couples to identify their love languages or the ways they feel most loved by a partner because this tool is the most helpful of all based on my 20 plus years of experience.
In my non-counseling time I enjoy teaching Reiki, giving Reiki sessions, traveling, meditating, working out, receiving massage, attending Kirtan, collecting rocks and crystals, and spending time with family and friends.
Karen’s Counseling Background
I graduated with an award for outstanding academic achievement from the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC) in 1993 with two graduate degrees in counseling; one with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy and one with an emphasis in mental health counseling. I also taught marriage and family graduate courses at UMKC for five years. At my present location, I began my private practice in 1993 and have enjoyed working with individuals, couples, teens, and children over the years with a variety of issues. Since 1994 I have been on the Spiritual Counseling Staff of my church. I completed a three year post-graduate training program in family systems therapy through Family Institute Associates.
I have appeared on television, radio, and in the newspaper several times, spoken to a number of groups about a variety of issues, and published an article in a professional journal.
Committed to empowering others to create open, honest, and loving relationships.
