Karen PelligraLMHC

Karen Pelligra is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) working in New York. She has 22 years of counseling experience across community mental health clinics, inpatient psychiatric settings, and home-based family services. She aims to help people who feel overwhelmed by life changes, mood concerns, or parenting challenges. Karen speaks plainly and focuses on making clients feel supported as they take steps forward.

Her approach centers on collaborating with each person to find what helps in day-to-day life. She uses client-centered methods to listen and reflect what matters most to a person. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques are offered to spot unhelpful thinking and develop practical coping skills. Dialectical Behavior Therapy and mindfulness strategies are also part of her toolkit for managing strong emotions and building stability.

Over two decades she has worked with people facing grief, relationship strain, addictions, trauma and abuse, postpartum depression, and chronic health challenges. She has experience supporting those navigating adoption and foster care concerns, first responder stress, and mood disorders such as bipolar conditions and seasonal affective disorder. Sessions focus on clear goals, skill-building, and real-world problem solving.

Karen encourages straightforward conversation about parenting stresses, communication problems, and feelings of emptiness or isolation. She uses motivational interviewing when people want to make changes but feel stuck. Her style is practical, compassionate, and focused on small steps that add up.

To begin, she asks people to consider what they most want to change and offers steady guidance while clients practice new habits between sessions.

How counseling approaches guide online work

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to what matters most to the person. It helps people feel heard and supported while they decide on next steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) breaks problems into thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches practical skills to shift unhelpful patterns. CBT is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress that come up around life transitions.

Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The therapist will work together with each person to try techniques and see what fits their needs and goals. That collaborative process helps shape sessions so the work feels useful and realistic for daily life.

Practical benefits of online therapy often include fitting sessions into a busy schedule and keeping momentum between visits. If you plan to work online, confirm which session options the therapist currently offers before booking. People often find remote sessions make it easier to schedule brief check-ins, reduce travel time, and practice skills in their regular routines rather than waiting for an in-person appointment.