About Karen
Karen Shaughness is a licensed clinical social worker with 38 years of experience based in New York. She uses a patient-centered style that aims to make starting therapy feel straightforward and approachable. Her work often focuses on stress and anxiety along with depression, relationship strain, and addiction concerns.
She leans on cognitive behavioral strategies and mindfulness to help people notice patterns and try new behaviors. Sessions often involve practical skills - like changing unhelpful thoughts, building better sleep routines, or practicing simple mindfulness exercises.
Background and approach
Motivational interviewing is used when people want help making changes but feel unsure how to begin. Her background includes many years supporting people through grief, trauma, parenting stresses, workplace problems, and major life transitions. She also has experience with mood disorders, panic and social anxiety, obsessive behaviors, and issues related to substance use.
That mix of concerns shows up in the way she shapes each plan to the person she is seeing. Karen works in a hospital setting and values a direct, warm manner. She aims to create a calm atmosphere and to move at a pace that feels manageable.
Outside work she spends time outdoors, near water, kayaking, gardening, and walking with her Golden Retriever. To begin, she asks people to complete a short matching questionnaire and then schedule sessions based on availability. Therapy sessions are offered through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Karen uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people notice and change thought and behavior patterns that feed anxiety and low mood. CBT focuses on practical exercises you can try between sessions, such as testing worries and changing routines to sleep or manage panic.She also integrates mindfulness therapy to teach simple attention and breathing practices. Mindfulness helps with staying present, reducing rumination, and managing stress reactions in the moment.
Finding the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, past attempts, and daily life before recommending strategies. Together they adjust methods over time so the work fits the person’s needs and preferences.
Online sessions offer flexibility and make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls support face-to-face conversation when a visual connection matters. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging let people share thoughts in writing and review notes later. These options make it simpler to maintain regular contact and to practice skills between meetings.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
Can people outside the U.S. work with her?
How are sessions conducted and what formats are available?
How does cost and scheduling work?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 38 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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