Karen Gano, LCSW-C, LCSW, CSW

Karen Gano is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than three decades of counseling experience. She focuses on helping people facing relationship stress, grief, trauma, anxiety, and big life changes. Her style aims to help clients find practical steps forward and regain confidence in daily life.

Karen practices what she describes as Empowerment Counseling. Sessions tend to be goal-oriented and collaborative, with an emphasis on strengthening coping skills and self-awareness. She combines a motivational approach with client-centered listening to support people making difficult transitions.

Her background includes long work in medical social work settings, including oncology, palliative care, emergency medicine, and critical care. That experience informs how she supports people under intense stress and during health-related life events. She also draws on experience with domestic abuse and trauma-related concerns.

Therapeutic work often includes short-term solution-focused strategies alongside mindfulness practices and trauma-focused tools when needed. The aim is to help people move from surviving toward a more manageable and purposeful daily life. Karen describes self-care and time as central elements of healing.

She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh and carries multiple LCSW credentials, including LCSW-C in Maryland. Karen is based in New Mexico and provides counseling in English. Prospective clients are encouraged to confirm current session options before booking.

How her approaches translate to online work

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to what matters most to the client. In practice this means the therapist follows the client's priorities, asks open questions, and helps people clarify what they want to change. Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple awareness skills like grounding and breathing exercises to reduce stress and improve focus, which can be practiced between sessions. Motivational Interviewing uses gentle, goal-focused conversations to help people find motivation for change and build small, achievable steps forward.

Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The therapist works with each person to figure out which methods fit their needs and goals. That choice is collaborative and can shift over time as progress is made or priorities change.

The original profile does not specify session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life, for example by removing travel time, allowing shorter check-ins during breaks, or letting someone meet without needing to be on camera for the whole session. These practical benefits help people keep therapy consistent while juggling work, caregiving, or health appointments.