About Karen
Karen Lilley is a licensed clinician with three decades of experience who helps people manage anxiety and related concerns. She speaks plainly and directly, and aims to give practical tools so clients can move from feeling stuck toward more stable days. Her style is strength-based and compassionate.
Sessions are direct but respectful, with a focus on concrete steps clients can try between meetings. She works with issues like stress, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and substance use concerns, and addresses feelings such as guilt, shame, and isolation.
Background and approach
Karen uses therapeutic techniques that focus on real skills rather than only talking about problems. She helps people improve communication, set boundaries, and cope with workplace strain. She also supports people dealing with body image concerns, attachment difficulties, and the pressures of caregiving.
With an MD and both LCSW-C and LCSW credentials, Karen brings a wide clinical perspective to sessions. Her approach blends clear guidance with encouragement to build self-compassion and healthier habits over time. Sessions are offered through a range of online formats so therapy can fit into busy lives.
To get started, a prospective client completes a short matching questionnaire and schedules a time that suits them.
Approaches that guide online work
Karen uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on skills and practical change. One key approach emphasizes learning coping skills for anxiety and panic attacks - breathing and grounding methods, stepwise exposure to feared situations, and brief behavioral experiments to reduce avoidance. These techniques help people reduce the intensity of worry and regain daily functioning.Another emphasis is on managing substance use and addictive behaviors through structured problem-solving and relapse prevention strategies. This involves identifying triggers, building alternative coping plans, and practicing new responses to cravings or high-risk situations. It aims to increase control over urges and support recovery efforts.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match techniques to their goals, preferences, and life demands, and adjust methods as progress is assessed. That collaboration helps ensure therapy feels relevant and doable.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule. Video allows more visual connection for learning skills, phone calls are useful when bandwidth is limited, live chat or messaging can support short check-ins or practice prompts between sessions, and all options let people access help from different locations and time constraints.
Questions people ask
What issues does she commonly help with?
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How much clinical experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Can sessions be conducted in other languages or outside the U.S.?
What session formats are offered online?
How are costs handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Anger management
Also listed
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Maryland, Louisiana
- Languages
- English
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