About Karen
Karen Guillory uses a client-centered style to help people find steadier ground. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) with 20 years of experience in the District of Columbia. Karen listens first and works with each person’s pace and priorities.
Her approach focuses on practical steps as well as understanding past hurts. She combines client-centered care with cognitive behavioral strategies and solution-focused planning to address stress, anxiety, and depression.
How Karen works
She also supports people dealing with trauma and abuse, grief, and addictions. Karen helps people who are navigating relationship and intimacy problems. She addresses communication problems, family of origin issues, and coaching around parenting concerns.
She also works with career stress, midlife transitions, and questions about life purpose. Her practice pays attention to complex, overlapping difficulties. That includes co-morbidity, caregiver stress, compassion fatigue, and first responder concerns.
She also supports people with bipolar disorder, ADHD, panic attacks, and other emotional health challenges. Karen values each person's strengths and story. She tends to be nonjudgmental, trauma-informed, and solution-focused.
Conversations aim to identify manageable steps and build on what already works for the person.
Karen lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Karen works with
The areas below are the ones Karen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LICSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | District of Columbia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Karen blends client-centered work and cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify what matters and change unhelpful patterns. Client-centered therapy means the conversation follows the person's goals and priorities, building on strengths and experience. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions and offers concrete skills for managing anxiety, depression, and panic.She also uses elements of dialectical behavior therapy when emotion regulation or distress tolerance skills are needed. DBT-based tools teach specific practices for handling intense feelings, improving communication, and reducing impulsive reactions. Choosing a method is a collaborative process and the therapist will help figure out the best fit based on needs, goals, and personal preferences.
Online sessions use video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to offer flexibility. Video calls let people use visual cues and deeper conversation. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or a quieter connection is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief check-ins, skill practice, or when written reflection helps. These options make it easier to fit care into busy schedules and varied routines.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
Book with KarenWe will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.
Common questions
What kinds of problems does Karen address?
What is her general therapy style?
How long has she been practicing?
Where is she licensed to practice?
Which languages are offered for sessions?
Can people outside the United States work with her?
What session formats are available?
How are costs and scheduling handled?
A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. Entries are not assessed or endorsed by this directory.
Other entries for stress, anxiety
Supportive LCSW helping people build strength and clarity
Practical, trauma-aware therapy for everyday life
Practical, relational therapy for life transitions