Karen Lakritz, LCSW

Karen Lakritz is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 30 years as a psychotherapist. She brings long experience helping people manage depression, anxiety, grief, and substance use that grows from loneliness. Her background also includes work with severe bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and she notes personal experience with a mild stutter and dyslexia.

She describes a warm and supportive style. Sessions combine respect and compassion with clear expectations and accountability. Karen aims to create a straightforward space where people can talk, set goals, and try practical steps to feel better.

Her clinical approach draws on cognitive-behavioral ideas, client-centered methods, attachment-focused work, and techniques from acceptance and emotion-focused models. That mix helps people notice patterns, practice different responses, and build clearer relationships with their thoughts and feelings.

Karen also has practical familiarity with health and housing systems in Canada after spending much of the past nine years there. That experience can help when navigating services or planning next steps that touch on social supports and everyday logistics.

She emphasizes that real change takes effort and a plan. Therapy with her typically involves setting clear goals, trying new strategies between sessions, and checking progress together. To begin, people are invited to complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule sessions according to availability.

How her approaches translate to online therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts without letting them drive actions, then choose behaviors that match their values. This approach can assist with anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new behaviors to change mood and functioning; it often helps with anxiety, depression, and sleep or eating concerns. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and helps people develop different ways of relating and feeling safer in connections.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Karen will collaborate with each person to pick methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences. She tailors techniques and checks in often to see what is helpful and what should change.

Specific session formats are not listed here, so confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life - sessions can be scheduled around work, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when needed. Some methods translate well to remote sessions because they include homework, skills practice, and short coaching between meetings. If you want to try online therapy, note the approaches above and ask about the practical formats offered when you schedule.