About Karen
Karen Shaughness is a licensed clinical social worker with 38 years of experience. She practices in New York and offers a warm, straightforward approach that focuses on the person in front of her. Karen aims to make starting therapy feel manageable for worried parents and busy adults alike.
Karen uses client-centered methods to build a respectful, listening space. She draws on cognitive behavioral therapy to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviors.
How Karen works
Mindfulness practices are used to reduce tension and improve focus during stressful times. Her practice covers many concerns, including stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, family conflict, trauma and grief. She also helps with sleep problems, parenting strain, workplace difficulties, and issues around intimacy and self-esteem.
Additional focuses include codependency, communication problems, and mood disorders such as bipolar conditions. Clients may find Karen useful when coping with life changes, compassion fatigue, first responder issues, or isolation and loneliness. She also addresses panic attacks, obsessive and compulsive patterns, seasonal mood shifts, and substance-related struggles.
Karen combines practical strategies with steady support. Outside of work she spends time outdoors and near water, enjoying kayaking, concerts, films, gardening, and long walks with her Golden Retriever. That balance between active life and reflective work informs her down-to-earth style in sessions.
Karen lists 4 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
- 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
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 38 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | New York |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches for online change
Karen uses client-centered methods that prioritize the person's own goals and pace, creating a listening space where concerns are heard and steps forward are discussed. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and practice specific behavior changes that reduce symptoms like anxiety or low mood.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Karen will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. She adapts techniques over time as progress is made and priorities change.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different schedules and styles. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and shared materials, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat supports shorter check-ins, and messaging is helpful for ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and to continue consistent work toward change.
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Common questions
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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.
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