About me

Kara supports clients who are navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, OCD, or unexplained chronic pain, such as headaches. These clients often have difficult, confusing feelings toward their parents and their childhood; feel internal pressure to be perfect or good; and are confident and successful in some areas of their lives, but are privately suffering. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and chronic pain often arise when we’re unable to fully be with—truly see, explore, and accept—the more painful aspects of our lives or pasts, and the difficult emotions they carry. Kara understands that this capacity doesn’t come naturally to most of us; we weren’t meant to do this alone. Many people simply haven’t received the kind of support they need to hold life’s pain.

With warmth, humor, and authenticity, Kara helps clients build the capacity to understand and accept both what they’ve been through and what they’re facing now. She believes that when we can be with what is and honor ourselves in how we meet it, the need for psychological and physical symptoms—often protective in nature—begins to lessen. From this place, it becomes possible to experience life in a way that feels safer, more whole, joyful, and free.

Kara’s work is relational, informed by parts-based, somatic, and psychodynamic approaches, as well as her training in Pain Reprocessing Therapy. She integrates these modalities and others to help clients explore the roots of their symptoms, build self-trust and felt safety, and move toward greater emotional clarity and connection with self and others. Her perspective is also shaped by her experiences as a parent, step-parent, and social worker, and by her background in the arts and social justice nonprofit work. Kara brings particular attunement to the process of healing from relationships, systems, or environments that once felt absolute, and to the quiet, courageous work of reimagining one’s life with greater freedom and self-leadership

Kara grew up in the Midwest and has lived in New York City for over 15 years. A trained vocalist with a deep love of music and the arts, she also finds joy in decorating, gardening, and tending to her many houseplants. She looks for beauty in her surroundings and in the unique expressions of humanity in those she encounters. This sensibility shapes her presence in the therapy room, where her work is guided by the desire to help others reconnect with the beauty that is already there, waiting to be seen and lived.

Focus Areas

  • Anxiety, depression, or complex PTSD (CPTSD)
  • Live with OCD or intrusive thoughts or ruminations that create shame, doubt, or distress
  • Grew up in emotionally neglectful or dysfunctional families and are still feeling the effects
  • Have experienced narcissistic abuse or relational trauma
  • Feel stuck in patterns of people-pleasing, over-responsibility, or codependency
  • Are navigating chronic pain or physical symptoms that don’t fully respond to medical treatment
  • Are recovering from religious trauma, spiritual abuse, or high-control environments