Karen Pelligra

Karen Pelligra is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) based in New York. She offers steady support for people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anger, depression, or anxiety. Her approach emphasizes collaboration and practical steps you can use between sessions.

She has 22 years of experience in outpatient community mental health clinics, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, and home-based family services. That background gives her familiarity with a range of problems, from grief and trauma to addiction and chronic illness. She listens first, then helps people build skills that fit their daily lives.

Karen uses several approaches to tailor care to each person. She blends client-centered work with cognitive behavioral techniques and mindfulness tools. She also draws on dialectical behavior strategies and motivational interviewing to help with motivation, emotion regulation, and coping skills.

In sessions she focuses on clear goals and small, manageable steps. People can expect straightforward conversation, skill practice, and planning for real-world challenges like relationship conflict, parenting strain, or work stress. She encourages self-compassion while addressing behaviors that keep problems going.

Karen helps people facing a wide range of concerns including eating issues, bipolar mood concerns, panic, obsessive thinking, postpartum depression, and compassion fatigue. She asks questions to understand each person’s situation, then develops a plan together that fits their needs and pace.

If you want to start, she guides people through an initial matching process and scheduling. The work aims to be practical, steady, and focused on improving daily functioning.

How therapeutic approaches translate to online work

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening closely and following the person's lead. It helps when someone needs a supportive space to sort out feelings, figure priorities, and make decisions. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at patterns of thinking and behavior and teaches practical strategies to change them. It is useful for anxiety, depression, panic, and many everyday problems.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will ask about goals, symptoms, and preferences and then try methods that fit the person. That way the plan evolves based on what helps most, and choices are made with the client rather than for them.

Session formats are not specified in the biography, so confirm current options before booking. Many people appreciate the convenience of online sessions because they make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, shorten commute time, or have a quicker check-in during a work break. Online work also supports using in-the-moment tracking, practicing skills between sessions, and moving at a pace that suits day-to-day life.