Karen Sturch , BACP

Karen Sturch is a counsellor with 19 years of experience who helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression and life transitions. She also supports those facing relationship and family conflict, LGBT concerns, addiction, trauma, grief and work-related strain. Karen works with a wide range of emotional and practical problems and encourages people to use their own strengths as they make change.

Her approach is straightforward and collaborative. She draws on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Solution-Focused Therapy to help clients identify unhelpful patterns and try small, practical steps that can make a difference. Sessions are conversational and goal oriented, with a focus on what the person wants to change.

Karen places value on the client’s own knowledge of their life. She invites people to reflect on what has worked before and to build from those moments. The work can include coping skills, problem solving and planning short experiments between sessions.

She also pays attention to issues often connected to emotional distress, such as attachment patterns, parenting stresses, chronic illness and the effects of trauma. That means practical support for things like panic attacks, low self-esteem and feelings of emptiness as well as help navigating major life events.

Karen is a BACP member and practises in the United Kingdom. She offers sessions in English and is willing to work with international clients. To begin, clients complete a short questionnaire and arrange sessions that suit their schedule.

Approaches for online counselling and practical change

Karen uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help people spot unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, then test small, realistic changes that reduce distress and improve day-to-day functioning. CBT can be useful for problems such as anxiety, panic attacks, mood difficulties and stress.

She also draws on Solution-Focused Therapy, which concentrates on a person’s goals and on building solutions from what already works. This approach is short-term and action oriented, often helpful for life transitions, coping with change and clarifying next steps.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Karen talks with each person about their goals and preferences and then chooses or blends methods that suit their needs. That collaborative planning helps shape a practical, personalised plan for therapy.

Online sessions are available by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging, providing flexibility for different schedules. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be easier when less bandwidth is available, live chat offers a quicker check-in and messaging suits people who prefer writing. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep progress moving between meetings.