Hi, I'm Karly
“At the heart of my work is a deeply rooted belief that we are not broken or in need of fixing, but rather whole and perfect in our imperfection. I believe we have within us a way to be with and move through the suffering, challenges and obstacles that life brings, and that these are soil for profound growth, however, often to access that growth we need support. That support is what drives me to engage fully in this work, recognizing that the systems in our lives don’t always offer it. Support to me means holding space that is completely free of judgment, believing deeply in my client’s innate wisdom and capacity, and reflecting this back with honesty. I see the therapy space as sacred - a place to hold reverence to the most vulnerable parts of each of us, a place to contain and transmute what feels stuck and a place to honor my clients fully. I learn more from my clients about trust and capacity than they could ever know.”
My Counseling Story
My journey to becoming a therapist started with my own transformative experience of therapy. In a moment in my life when I was deeply struggling, therapy helped me fit pieces together that revealed life-giving new perspectives and a way through, rather than around.
At the time I was a middle and high school teacher teaching English as a Second Language to students who had just arrived in the US who spoke very little, if any, English, and whose lives were also upended in many ways. These students taught me more about resilience and love than I can ever express. They are the seed and root of my work as a therapist today. Later, my work as a Youth Educator and Advocate at a Domestic Violence Resource Agency taught me about the miraculous capacity the human spirit has to find strength and a way forward in the midst of immense suffering. This has informed my work as a therapist deeply. My training as a 500hr Yoga Teacher and Yoga therapist, along with formal study of a form of secular Vipassana meditation created a bridge to practices that profoundly impacted my ability to shift my perspective
and engage in life with more presence and reverence.
My training at Naropa University focused on Mindfulness based counseling modalities, including Gestalt therapy, which I integrate through an approach of slowing down and engaging in presence centered techniques, parts work and connection with somatic experience of emotion. Gestalt is a term that references that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If we think about our favorite poem, each word taken apart has a meaning, but when all are placed together there is a magical transformation that reveals much more than just a string of words. The same, I believe, is true for our human
experience.
At a Glance
Clients I work with:
Children 10+, Teens, Adults
Availability for Appts:
Tues, Wed, Thurs daytime hours, with limited evening availability on
Thursdays
Approaches I use in therapy:
Mindfulness-based modalities, Gestalt informed, Parts Work/Internal Family Systems (IFS), Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Insurances I accept:
Anthem, BCBS, Federal BCBS, Optum, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Tufts, Harvard Pilgrim, Martin's Point, Tricare, and UMR.
THE WAY UNDER THE WAY – MARK NEPO
For all that has been written,
for all that has been read, we
are led to this instant where one
of us will speak and one of us will
listen, as if no one has ever placed
an oar into that water.
It doesn’t matter how we come
to this. We may jump to it or be
worn to it. Because of great pain.
Or a sudden raw feeling that this
is all very real. It may happen in a
parking lot when we break the eggs
in the rain. Or watching each other
in our grief.
But here we will come. With very
little left in the way.
When we meet like this, I may not
have the words, so let me say it now:
Nothing compares to the sensation
of being alive in the company of
another. It is God breathing on
the embers of our soul.
Stripped of causes and plans
and things to strive for,
I have discovered everything
I could need or ask for
is right here—
in flawed abundance.
We cannot eliminate hunger,
but we can feed each other.
We cannot eliminate loneliness,
but we can hold each other.
We cannot eliminate pain,
but we can live a life
of compassion.
Ultimately,
we are small living things
awakened in the stream,
not gods who carve out rivers.
Like human fish,
we are asked to experience
meaning in the life that moves
through the gill of our heart.
There is nothing to do
and nowhere to go.
Accepting this,
we can do everything
and go anywhere.
BREAKING SURFACE – MARK NEPO
Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won't let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can't be done.
Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.
You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.