Karen Santos, PACFA

Karen Santos is a PACFA psychotherapist and social worker with 12 years of clinical experience in Australia. She works with adults on issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, grief and parenting challenges. Sessions are offered in English and Tagalog and she has a background in community mental health case management.

Karen describes practical, down-to-earth sessions that focus on what matters to the client. She listens to current struggles and looks at how patterns from early family life continue to affect choices, relationships and expectations now. Conversations cover everyday problems and the habits people fall into when under pressure.

Her clinical work draws on a mix of approaches. Karen uses cognitive behavioural techniques for managing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. She also works with emotion-focused ideas to help people name and respond to strong feelings. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is part of her ongoing development and she integrates narrative perspectives to make sense of life stories.

Karen has training that includes neurobiology of trauma and developmental trauma, Synergetic Play Therapy for work with children, CBT and EFT. That variety supports work on attachment and family-of-origin patterns, and on related concerns such as abandonment, adoption and foster care, and communication problems.

Sessions tend to focus on practical skills, clearer communication, and safer ways to try new behaviours. Clients who are parenting, coping with loss, or noticing repeating family roles may find this approach helpful. To begin, the site matching process helps connect people to a suitable first session.

How Karen uses different approaches in online work