Karen Lakritz , LCSW

Karen Lakritz is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist. She brings a direct, compassionate approach and a long history of helping people through depression, anxiety, grief, and addiction. Karen is comfortable working with people who have severe mood disorders and those who identify as LGBT. She practices from Florida and also works with international clients in English.

Her style is warm and supportive while also asking for effort and follow-through. Sessions focus on practical steps - talking through feelings, testing new behaviors, and building skills to manage stress and strong emotions. Karen notes lived experience with a mild stutter and dyslexia, and she draws on that understanding when helping people who are non-neurotypical.

Over her career she has helped people facing trauma, relationship and intimacy issues, parenting strain, sleep and eating concerns, and the ups and downs of caregiving and chronic illness. She also supports those struggling with career stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Treatment tends to combine practical skill work with attention to attachment and relational patterns.

Karen uses a mix of approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, cognitive-behavioral techniques, client-centered methods, attachment-focused work, and emotion-focused tools. She helps people clarify goals and choose strategies that fit their situation. Real change is framed as steady work, and she offers ongoing coaching alongside therapy.

To begin, clients select a start path and complete a brief matching questionnaire. Scheduling is arranged based on the therapist's availability and the session formats the person prefers.

Approaches and how they work online

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings while committing to actions that match their values. It can help with depression, anxiety, and coping with life changes by focusing on meaningful goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches practical techniques to change unhelpful patterns. CBT is often used for anxiety, mood concerns, sleep, and eating issues. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at early relationship patterns and how they influence current connections; it can be useful for intimacy problems, communication issues, and attachment wounds.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will collaborate with each person to identify goals and try methods that fit their needs and preferences. Sessions can be adjusted over time so the plan stays relevant to progress and changing priorities.

Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more accessible. Video lets you read facial cues and use screen-shared worksheets. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and messaging support brief check-ins, coaching-style guidance, or notes between longer conversations. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping the focus on practical change.