About Karissa
Karissa Thomas is a licensed master social worker who focuses on helping people manage anxiety and other life stresses. She works in Michigan and brings a practical, down-to-earth style to sessions. Karissa aims to create a space where people feel heard and understood.
She approaches work with curiosity, compassion, and a straightforward attitude. Her style is nonjudgmental and genuine. Karissa treats each person as the expert on their own life and helps them name what matters most.
Background and approach
She uses clear, concrete steps alongside listening and reflection. Laughter and realness are welcome parts of the process. Karissa draws from several clinical approaches to match what a person needs in the moment.
She uses methods that focus on thoughts and behavior, present-moment values, and building stronger emotional connections. These tools are selected to address issues such as anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, and relationship or intimacy concerns. Over seven years of practice have shaped her practical problem-solving skills and ability to support people through change.
She is comfortable helping with grief, addiction, parenting strain, body image, and career stress, among other concerns. Her work also touches on attachment challenges and coping after loss or disruption. Sessions aim to balance insight with action.
People can expect direct feedback, gentle curiosity, and collaborative goal-setting. Karissa helps people set manageable steps and supports them as they try new ways of coping.
Approaches that translate well to online work
Karissa draws on cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in her online work. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on identifying unhelpful thought and behavior patterns and testing new, more helpful ways of thinking and acting; it is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress. Acceptance and commitment therapy encourages people to clarify their values, act toward what matters, and make space for difficult feelings rather than getting stuck trying to avoid them; it can help with anxiety, compulsive habits, and life transitions.Choosing the right approach is something Karissa treats as a collaboration. She will talk with each person about their goals, try methods in-session, and adjust strategies based on what is helpful. The work often blends techniques so it fits the person rather than forcing a single method.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls let the therapist and client see each other and work through exercises together. Phone sessions can be a good fit when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging allow ongoing support between sessions and can make it easier to share quick reflections or practice new skills. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and continue care when in-person meetings are not possible.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Gottman Method
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
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