about Karen

An estimated one in every thirty people struggles with a BFPA, yet many experience these behaviors in silence, shame, and isolation. Karen brings decades of clinical experience working with BFRBs and has developed the BFPA™ approach to help people understand why these behaviors can become so difficult to stop—and learn effective tools and skills for lasting change.

BFPA = BFRB + Addiction Science

If you recognize yourself in this or have questions about your own behavior, you don’t have to figure it out alone. Karen is here to help.

Depression, fear, and anxiety can affect every part of our lives, making it difficult to feel like ourselves or imagine things getting better. Therapy can provide a place to slow down, understand what you’re experiencing, and begin finding your way forward. Karen can help you develop the tools and perspective to move through these challenges, reconnect with yourself, and rediscover a sense of motivation, connection, and joy—or, for some, begin to discover those things for the first time.

OCD is often misunderstood, and many people spend years trying to manage their symptoms in ways that actually keep the cycle going. OCD is not simply about having unwanted thoughts or being overly concerned about things. It is the way we respond to those thoughts—the fear, uncertainty, doubt, and need to feel certain or safe—that can keep OCD going.

Karen has extensive experience treating all forms of OCD, including many of the less visible forms that can be difficult to recognize. Treatment is individualized and may include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Rather than trying to eliminate every unwanted thought or achieve complete certainty, treatment helps you change your relationship with the thoughts and fears that OCD brings up. You learn to recognize the OCD cycle, tolerate uncertainty and discomfort, and gradually respond in ways that are more consistent with what matters to you.

Traumatic and painful experiences can affect us long after the event itself has passed. Anxiety, fear, grief, hopelessness, and a sense of being on guard can linger, sometimes making it difficult to feel safe, connected, or fully present in your life. Healing doesn’t mean forgetting what happened or pretending it didn’t affect you. It means having the opportunity to understand what you’ve been carrying, develop new ways of responding, and gradually feel more like yourself again.

Karen can help you work through the effects of trauma and painful experiences with compassion and without judgment. Together, you can begin to understand the ways you may have learned to protect yourself and explore what it might look like to move forward without those protective patterns continuing to limit your life.

Sometimes we become so focused on avoiding pain that our lives begin to revolve around avoiding anything that might trigger it. When we organize our lives around not feeling pain, pain can begin to run our lives.

It doesn’t have to stay that way. Healing creates the possibility of making room for difficult feelings without allowing them to determine what you do, where you go, or how you live.

Teletherapy sessions conducted via a secure and encrypted platform allow you to receive therapy services from the privacy of your your own home or office.