Karen Garraputa
Compassionate counselor for practical life change
LCMHC North Carolina
- Experience
- 25 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Stress, Anxiety, LGBT, Trauma and abuse
- Approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Languages
- English
About Karen
Karen Garraputa brings a calm, experienced presence to therapy and welcomes people seeking help for stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, LGBT concerns, and life transitions.
Background and approach
She introduces herself as a North Carolina licensed mental health counselor (LCMHC) with 25 years of clinical experience, and she frames therapy as a collaborative exploration of choices and next steps. She emphasizes that change often happens gradually, and that taking the first step toward a different life takes courage.
Her approach blends cognitive behavioral techniques with mindfulness-informed practices to connect thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and promote practical shifts that improve day-to-day functioning. Karen listens attentively to each person’s story and aims to provide steady guidance while respecting the pacing each client needs.
She also focuses on related themes such as forgiveness, guilt and shame, life purpose, self-love, mood disorders, and women’s issues. Clients can expect an empathetic, down-to-earth therapist who values partnership in the work and supports people as they navigate uncertainty and build toward goals they find meaningful.
CBT and DBT approaches for online care
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing practical changes in behavior to reduce symptoms and improve everyday functioning. It often involves structured exercises and skill-building that translate well to remote sessions and written tools.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness skills. DBT-oriented techniques help people manage intense emotions and respond more effectively in relationships and stressful situations.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist works with each person to explore goals, preferences, and responses to different strategies, adapting methods as the work unfolds to find what fits best for the individual.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which can make it easier to fit care into busy lives and maintain continuity between meetings. These formats let licensed professionals deliver skills training, talk therapy, and check-ins in ways that match a client’s schedule and communication style, supporting consistent progress from wherever they are located.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
25+ years
Licensed
North Carolina
Languages
English