Karen Hansen, PhD, MBA, BCIA

Licensed Therapist and Coach

Create positive changes in mind, body and spirit for a life you love

In case you are curious about the therapist outside of the counseling office….

I absolutely love traveling and finding adventures in new places, particularly working with earth and plant energies. I embrace nature as a powerful teacher and enjoy spending time hiking and meditating on my deck. In recent years I have been hiking stages of the Santiago de Compostela trail in Europe. When I’m not enjoying time with my friends and family I can be found reading, writing or diving deep into gluten, sugar-free baking. After my 8 week keto transformation I began to get creative with new recipes that remind me of carb heavy favorites. As an American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Responder I’ve counseled school violence incidents and served as a Volunteer with the Soldier’s Project providing counseling to military family members.

On a personal note, I have been described as warm, easy to talk to, open-minded and able to sense what other may be thinking and feeling. I share my deep knowledge about the brain in a way that helps others make positive changes. To me, that sounds almost too good to be true! Judge for yourself, do with it what you will!

I have written and given talks about the human-animal bond and pet bereavement. I noticed when I wrote the book Life, Death, Dog: Between This Pet and the Next that the grief process for my dog felt different than the grief for a family member that died around the same time. I found myself confused about the way I grieved my dog and why it felt like I was ‘more sad’ about my dog than my family members. In writing about my bond and how deeply I was connected to our dog growing up and why, I found peace and acceptance about the way I mourned these special beings in my life.

Here are some concrete pieces that qualify me to help you:

I am a licensed Mental health counselor in the States of Washington, Arizona and Vermont.
I am BCIA certified in neurofeedback
I got my PhD in Clinical Psychology from Saybrook Graduate School.
I got my MA in Counseling Psychology from Vermont College.
I have studied mind-body medicine for 30 years and have myself recovered from thyroiditis.
I worked as a college counselor at Central Washington University.
I am currently a Disaster Mental Health Responder with the Red Cross.
I completed certification as an Integrated Mental Health Nutrition Counselor and Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health Clinician.

I completed training and certification in LENS Neurofeedback, EMDR and IBSR, Hypnosis, Energy and Mind-Body focused techniques, Archetypal imagery and meditation.
I studied under Astrologer Jessica Murray in San Francisco, California.
I interned at the Sexual Assault Crisis team, counseling women who survived childhood and/or adult sexual assault and rape.
I interned at the Alcohol Crisis Center counseling men and women with addiction.
I have training from the Touch for Health Kinesiology center.
I’m from the Chicago area, but have lived on the East, West Coasts and I now have family in Europe.
I’ve traveled throughout Western Europe, Southeast Asia, India, Egypt, Russia, the Caribbean, and the U.S.
I have taught over 30 psychoeducational courses at community centers.

I’ve attended Diversity & Inclusion conferences.
I am a current member of Minnesota Counseling Association and Arizona Friends of Jung and Rhine Education Center for Parapsychology.
I have reflected upon and practiced various forms of meditation integrating chakras, sound and sacred geometry for over thirty years.
I’ve studied the major religions of the world both on my own and in school settings.
I work with both Eastern and Western models of health (and try to take the best parts of each one!)
Eclectic in my orientation, Jungian, Transpersonal, Gestalt, Attachment and Object relations theories inform my work.
Other influences to name a few: Bessel Van der Kolk, Echhart Tolle, Louise Hay, Brene Brown, Pema Chodron.

spiritual counseling, meditation, healing

You’ve done basic work and are now ready to go deeper in your personal work

Tele-therapy is available

Transpersonal therapy consists of 50-minute, one-on-one sessions that help you work through your concerns. In addition to listening, I will play an active role by asking questions. Here’s how it will work step-by-step:

1. First, I provide a safe, accepting space so that you will feel comfortable sharing your struggles with me.

2. Through hearing your story, I will start to get a picture of what your challenges are with the help of archetypes seen in your humanistic astrological chart.

3. We will start with helping you with immediate concerns like managing challenging life situations, recognizing your intuition and gifts, and increasing performance and decreasing procrastination.

4. We’ll discover your goals and work together to achieve them using a few different types of therapy: Neurofeedback, EMDR, BNR, hypnosis, brain nutrition, energy psychology, humanistic astrology, epigenetics or intuitive coaching.

5. Keeping your unique goals in mind, we’ll put together a detailed plan of what’s needed to help your mind, body and spirit to reach them.

6. Over the course of our sessions, you will start making progress towards the life you desire.

I typically offer 6-10 sessions of transpersonal therapy that is insight-oriented and focused on helping you get your life back on track and connect with your soulful authentic self. Therapy may be combined with LENS Neurofeedback used simultaneously with EMDR. Research shows that Transpersonal Therapy for stress, anxiety, ADHD, performance and relationship trauma can positively change your thinking, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. It can help you let go of what’s holding you back, improve your relationship with yourself and those you care about.

Healing is a process that clears out old patterns, memories, concepts, and behaviors that no longer serve our higher needs and aspirations. The focus is not on ‘fixing’ what needs to be healed; healing implies something is wrong and needs to be ‘fixed’. Instead, from a soul’s perspective, you are bettering and raising your spirit from deep within, moment to moment. Tranpersonal therapy can help you manifest the prosperity consciousness you desire.

Testimonials

“Working with Dr. Karen doing neurofeedback is a dream. She is so kind, thoughtful and helpful. It’s been easy to schedule appointments with her. She is the most flexible practitioner I’ve ever worked with in terms of scheduling. Dr. Karen also does a wonderful job at creating a comfortable experience. She explains the process and checks in along the way. I would highly recommend working with her.”

“Karen is safe, knowledgeable, trusting, compassionate, warm, professional, and incredibly skilled. She also has a comprehensive repertoire of therapy styles and educational materials. She has allowed me to find a safe place, free of judgment and full of respect to do the work I need to do. I have recommended Karen to friends and would do so again and again!”

“I found the therapy helpful as Karen has helped me to identify different methods of therapy and coping techniques after going through a very difficult divorce. She has always been nonjudgmental and created an environment where I always felt safe to share and explore my challenges. I always felt like I’m checking in with a safe person that has an interest in my future success and well being. ”