Karen Gano, LCSW-C, LCSW, CSW

Karen Gano greets visitors with a straightforward offer: help to get through difficult life changes and feel more in control. She is Karen Gano, a Licensed Certified Social Worker with over 33 years of clinical counseling experience. Her approach is practical and goal oriented, and she often supports people facing transitions like separation, career shifts, relocation, illness, or the empty nest.

She calls her style Empowerment Counseling and uses a mix of methods to suit each person. Sessions focus on building skills, finding personal strengths, and clarifying next steps. Conversations are collaborative, and the work aims to increase self-awareness, boost self-esteem, and expand each person’s support options.

Her background includes long experience as a medical social worker. That work included trauma, emergency medicine, critical care, oncology, palliative care, and domestic abuse settings. That history informs how she listens to practical and emotional needs, and how she helps people manage caregiver stress and difficult health-related decisions.

Karen holds LCSW-C and LCSW credentials and a Master of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She practices from New Mexico and brings a strengths-based, compassionate tone to sessions. Her goal is to help people move from coping to thriving through steady, manageable steps.

She highlights simple tools and self-care routines condensed into real-life plans. The work often includes mindfulness, motivational techniques, and short-term problem solving aimed at clear outcomes.

Approaches that guide online sessions

Client-centered therapy puts the person’s perspective first. The therapist listens carefully, reflects what she hears, and helps people identify their own goals and solutions. This works well for stress, low self-esteem, and life transitions.

Mindfulness therapy teaches simple awareness skills to reduce reactivity and increase calm. It can help with anxiety, stress, and coping with health challenges by training attention and breathing techniques. Motivational interviewing focuses on the momentum for change. It uses conversations to uncover a person’s reasons for change and to boost commitment to next steps.

Finding the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will discuss preferences, goals, and what feels most useful in early sessions. Together they adjust methods as needs and priorities become clearer, so the plan stays practical and personally meaningful.

The practical benefits of online therapy include easier fit into busy days and reduced travel time. Some people find shorter check-ins useful when schedules are tight, while others prefer longer sessions for deeper work; confirm the available session formats before booking. Online work can make it simpler to keep therapy consistent through relocations, health challenges, or career changes without promising a specific delivery style.