Karen Santos, PACFA

Karen Santos is a PACFA psychotherapist and social worker with 12 years' experience. She supports adults, adolescents and children through stress, anxiety, trauma, grief, depression and parenting challenges. She works alongside people to identify what matters to them and to build practical ways forward.

Karen's recent work includes trauma-focused counselling and community mental health case management. That experience shaped her practical approach to problems that feel overwhelming. Sessions tend to focus on what a person needs now and what small changes could make life easier.

Her practice draws on a mix of methods. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people notice thinking patterns and try different behaviours. Emotionally-Focused Therapy supports clearer emotional attunement in close relationships. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is part of her evolving skill set and is used to help people clarify values and make purposeful choices.

Karen also brings experience with play-based approaches for younger clients, and knowledge of developmental and neurobiology-informed responses to trauma. She helps parents address parenting strain and supports people coping with loss, chronic illness, body image and related concerns.

She offers sessions in English and Tagalog and works from Australia. Her style is collaborative and down-to-earth. People who want practical tools and steady support tend to find her approach helpful.

Approaches that translate to online counselling

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take steps that align with those values even when feelings are difficult. It can be useful for anxiety, depression and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings and actions and gives practical tools to change unhelpful patterns. It often suits problems like anxiety, low mood and stress. Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps people better understand and name emotions and improve emotional connection in close relationships.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and preferences and then suggest methods likely to help. That process is collaborative, and adjustments are made as needs become clearer.

Confirm available session formats before booking as the biography does not list specific online or in-person options. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, reduce travel time and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It can also make it simpler to include different family members in a session when appropriate, or to continue therapy while managing medical or mobility challenges. Appropriately qualified therapists will explain practical arrangements and help choose an approach that fits each person's life and goals.