Karen Gano

Karen Gano welcomes people who are facing big life changes and need steady support. She is Karen Gano, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with decades of counseling experience and a focus on helping clients find clearer direction and stronger coping tools.

She describes her work as Empowerment Counseling. Sessions are aimed at helping people notice strengths, set small goals, and try practical steps toward change. Karen uses a motivational style and draws on client-centered listening and solution-focused techniques to keep conversations grounded and forward-moving.

Her background includes long experience in medical social work and settings that deal with trauma, oncology, palliative care, and domestic violence. This history informs how she talks about illness, caregiving stress, and end-of-life topics without assuming any single path forward.

In the room she emphasizes self-care, steady pacing, and building skills for everyday life. She offers mindfulness practices and trauma-focused strategies when they fit a person’s needs. The aim is to expand coping, raise self-awareness, and help people make choices that match their values.

Clients commonly bring concerns such as grief, anxiety, relationship or intimacy issues, addiction, career shifts, and midlife adjustments. Karen also supports people wrestling with caregiver strain, aging or geriatric questions, fertility and fertility loss, and hospice and end-of-life counseling matters.

With 33 years of practice and licensure across multiple states, she aims to help people move from surviving to thriving through steady, practical steps and collaborative planning.

How her approaches translate to online care

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and reflecting so a person feels heard and understood; it helps when someone needs space to sort out feelings and decide next steps. Mindfulness Therapy introduces simple awareness and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and manage stress in daily life. Motivational Interviewing uses short, goal-focused conversations that help people identify their own reasons to change and take small, doable steps.

Deciding which approach to use is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences and try methods that fit a client’s needs. Adjustments are made as progress is tracked so the plan remains relevant and practical.

If you plan to use online sessions, confirm the specific session options before booking since the profile does not list formats. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, allow shorter check-ins when time is limited, and let people practice skills in the settings where they live. Licensed professionals can guide mindfulness exercises, coach through motivational steps, and support trauma-focused techniques by phone or video when those formats are available. Discuss scheduling and format preferences up front to find sessions that match daily routines and goals.