Karen Kelly, LCSW

Karen Kelly is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) based in Alaska with 13 years of practice. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and the stresses of day-to-day life. Her work often addresses issues that come from high-pressure jobs and service roles, including challenges faced by veterans and first responders.

She aims to make sessions straightforward and practical. Karen uses approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients learn coping skills and change unhelpful patterns. She also draws on client-centered methods and mindfulness to create a calm, respectful space for talking through hard topics.

Clients commonly bring concerns such as grief, anger, low self-esteem, relationship and intimacy difficulties, and problems with substance use. Karen helps people sort through guilt, shame, and difficult memories while building day-to-day routines that reduce overwhelm. She also supports people coping with life changes like divorce, relocation, or job stress.

Her background includes experience as a first responder, which informs her understanding of duty-related stress, compassion fatigue, and trauma. That experience helps her relate to challenges that emerge from demanding roles and emergency work.

Sessions are offered in English and French. To begin, prospective clients use the site’s Start Therapy button to complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to the therapist’s availability.

How therapy approaches translate to online care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people clarify what matters most to them and take small, values-based actions. It can be useful for anxiety, depression, and feeling stuck. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at thoughts and behaviors and offers practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns, often used for anxiety, mood disorders, and stress. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) works with memories and distressing experiences to reduce their emotional intensity, which can help with trauma and post-traumatic stress.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and comfort level. That choice can change over time as goals evolve and new challenges arise.

If you plan to do sessions online, confirm which formats are currently offered before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, for example by removing travel time, making shorter check-ins possible, or allowing sessions during a break at work. Licensed professionals can adapt ACT, CBT, and EMDR techniques to remote sessions so clients can practice real skills between meetings.