About Karen
Karen Ellis is a licensed clinical social worker with 14 years of experience. She focuses on anxiety and stress and aims to make starting therapy a manageable step for people feeling overwhelmed. She creates a warm, nonjudgmental atmosphere that encourages honest conversation.
Sessions center on noticing thoughts and feelings and finding practical ways to respond rather than get stuck. Karen emphasizes clear, down-to-earth guidance so people can try new skills between meetings.
Background and approach
Her work draws on approaches that help with many common concerns. She uses methods that support changes in behavior, build coping skills, and clarify values. This makes her a fit for people coping with depression, grief, trauma, or relationship and intimacy challenges.
Clients also come for help with more specific issues like obsessive thoughts, addiction patterns, body image, and blended family stress. She addresses life transitions and aging-related concerns with attention to practical problem solving and emotional adjustment. Karen practices in Oregon and conducts sessions in English.
She supports people through a range of difficulties including anger, low self-esteem, parenting strain, and issues tied to veteran or armed forces experience. Her approach is collaborative and focused on small, steady steps toward feeling more able to handle daily life.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice hard thoughts and feelings without getting driven by them, then choose actions that match their values. This approach can help with persistent anxiety, depression, and life transitions by focusing on what matters most and taking manageable steps toward it.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts and behaviors interact and teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful patterns. It is often used for anxiety, obsessive thinking, mood struggles, and coping with difficult life events by practicing new responses in real situations.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist treats this as a team effort and will adjust methods based on each person's goals, preferences, and what proves most useful in sessions. Clients can talk openly about what feels helpful and what does not, and the plan can shift over time.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls let people use visual cues and longer conversations, phone sessions work well when lower bandwidth is needed, live chat can fit brief check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing notes between meetings. These options offer flexibility to fit therapy into busy schedules and different daily routines.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her general approach in sessions?
How much experience does she have?
What credential does she hold and where does she practice?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
What session formats are available?
How does billing and cost work?
What steps are involved to begin working together?
What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Money and financial issues
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sex addiction
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Oregon
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.