About Karl
Karl Prater is a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than 31 years of professional experience. He focuses on relationship struggles, parenting concerns, self-esteem, and coping with major life changes. Karl emphasizes straightforward, respectful conversation and practical steps people can use between sessions.
He spent over 16 years as a mental health supervisor before moving into independent practice. That background shaped his skill at organizing care, coaching people through change, and helping them set realistic goals.
How Karl works
He draws on experience rather than jargon when talking about what to try next. Karl uses a mix of approaches to suit each person. He blends mindfulness to slow down and notice patterns, motivational interviewing to build momentum, and solution-focused work to set clear, short-term goals.
He also draws on narrative and psychodynamic ideas to help people make sense of long-standing patterns and family of origin issues. Sessions are conversational and goal-oriented. Karl listens for what matters most and helps people build small, manageable steps toward improvement.
He also helps with specific concerns such as blended family issues, caregiver stress, communication problems, and workplace challenges. He practices in Hawaii and conducts sessions in English. Karl aims to tailor conversations and plans to each person’s situation and to support steady progress over time.
Karl lists 6 ways of working on the entry:
What Karl works with
The areas below are the ones Karl selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Relationship issues
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Self-love
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 31 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Hawaii |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches for change and connection online
Mindfulness Therapy helps people slow down and notice thoughts and feelings without judgment. It can be useful for reducing reactivity, improving emotional awareness, and calming stress during big life changes. Motivational Interviewing focuses on building motivation and resolving uncertainty about change. It works well when someone wants to move forward but feels stuck or ambivalent. Solution-Focused Therapy centers on identifying small, achievable goals and building on existing strengths. It is practical and action-oriented, helping people make quick progress on specific relationship or parenting problems.Finding the right mix of methods is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose approaches that match their goals, needs, and preferences. That could mean starting with motivational interviewing to build momentum, adding mindfulness practices for emotional regulation, and using solution-focused steps to track progress.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video calls mirror an in-person conversation, phone sessions need less bandwidth and can fit a break at work, live chat is useful for brief check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to schedule consistent sessions and to try different formats as needs 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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