I feel moved to add to Karen's reviews here because, by my estimation, she is an absolutely stellar…read moretherapist and human being. I have never encountered another therapist who embodied unconditional positive regard in quite the same way-- I truly felt that, whatever I was bringing in (in terms of mood, or content), it would be held in unconditional positive regard, almost like Karen was an ideal family member who was always in my corner of the ring, cheering me on and completely believing in me. Because of my work with Karen, I am now in a completely different place in my life. She has a creative mind that is able to grasp and constantly search for every possibility, so that even when I've been ramming my head against the same closed door over and over, she is able to tell me where all the windows are that I have never even considered. She brings in her coaching skills to gently continue to nudge her clients in the direction they want to go, and gets genuinely excited for them every step of the way. In addition to that, she is masterful at forging a strong therapeutic relationship of safety and trust, and as a former client, I can still sometimes here her voice cheering me on and calming me when I'm not sure I can figure things out. According to object relations theory, this is one of the most important things a therapist can do for their clients: to become one of the most helpful members of their internal community. This is the gift of therapy that keeps on giving.
Because good therapy has this kind of lasting and totally life-transforming effect, I personally consider it priceless. Also, in response to the comment regarding Karen's being born blind and "dropping $175" on therapy, I feel moved to write that one of the most remarkable things about Karen is that she sees more sliding scale and insurance clients than just about any other therapist I have ever met in the SF Bay Area, where most therapists are full fee only and do not take insurance (in other words, between $150 and $200 out of pocket per session, and upwards from there) because it is so hard for anyone in this area (therapists included) to make ends meet, and therapists have offices to pay rent on and monthly business expenses, in addition to their own personal life expenses. Not only is Karen personally making the biggest dent she can in the current mental health crisis in SF by seeing lots of people who can't afford full fee, but she emits one of the most genuinely positive presences I've ever encountered. It is for this reason that I find her to be not just a great therapist, but a truly inspiring person. Additionally, I know that Karen had to overcome great personal and professional challenges in order to build her career as a therapist, including but not limited to discrimination by supervisors and potential employers based on her being blind (sometimes in particularly cruel fashion), but she kept going, because this is what she loves to do. As far as I am concerned, this makes Karen truly inspiring. It is hard to find something more therapeutic than sitting across the room from a truly inspiring person who holds you in unconditional positive regard and believes in you completely. To me, that is way more important than tracking subtle eye contact. There are so many layers to the therapeutic process as well, and I would say that focusing too much on the appearance or body language of a client can detract from deep listening (hearing the content, and process, and the emotion in the voice, as well as where the voice is coming from in the body, and also tracking the subtle somatic awareness of another person's presence in the room). We are all so accustomed to being judged and assessed based on some aspect of our physical appearance -- it's easy to "miss" the real person underneath whatever we have decided about them based on their superficial qualities. I never felt "missed" by Karen, and this, again, is one of the hallmarks of good therapy. I felt more "seen" and believed in by her than most other people who were physically able to see me. I would encourage readers of Karen's two-star review, and anyone considering therapy with Karen, to consider the ways that her being blind, and experiencing and overcoming discrimination as the result of that, actually adds very much to her strength as a therapist. I am very glad Karen is out there and believe she is an incredibly beneficial force in the world.