Therapy is concinnity in action

Relationship & Individual Therapy

KAREN A. NERI, JD, PhD

counseling@concinnitytherapy.com | 503.208.4687

We come to know ourselves best in the context of our relationships.

Despite knowing you are cared for or loved, you might still feel lonely, stuck in a conflict cycle, inadequate or burdened by self-criticism. Therapy can be a space to make sense of what is happening, heal and move forward.

I am an integrative relational counselor/therapist with an orientation towards social justice. l have long worked with folks on matters that affect their relationships and personal lives; first as a counselor at law, and presently, as a psychotherapist.

I work with individuals, partners, and family members who feel stuck in recurring patterns of disconnection, emotional distance, loneliness or mistrust. Although their lives or relationships may appear comfortable on the surface, they may be carrying a more complex inner experience and longing for greater closeness, ease, and trust.

 

Babaylan (healer), Pag-unlad ng Panggagamot sa Pilipinas (The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines)

One of a series of four paintings by muralist Carlos “Botong” Francisco depicting a shaman priestess/healer in pre-colonial Philippines holding a healing ritual. Image credit: XiaoChua.net

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I offer a collaborative, culturally responsive, and supportive space in which to explore your concerns; work with experience of shame or unworthiness; examine the role of power, privilege, or oppression; and strengthen your relationships. We can consider how the environments or circumstances around you affect your connection and well-being.

You may be in the right place, if you:

  • Feel distant from your partner, family or yourself

  • Are caught in the same conflict, withdrawal or loneliness

  • Feel anxious or down, self-critical, exhausted from being responsible for everyone else

  • Are navigating loss or trauma

  • Want a collaborative and supportive space that recognizes and honors the impact of culture, racialization, family history, and social context.

  • Are ready to explore your patterns with curiosity, honesty and understanding as well as build more secure, compassionate, and fulfilling relationships.

Together, we can work towards deepening your understanding of the structures or situations that impact you, and your process, as well as identify meaningful areas for change; one that permits recovery or healing.

You are not alone in your struggles.

I invite you to connect with me.

Concinnity means the harmonious arrangement or fitting together of different parts, creating a whole. I see therapy as an opportunity to mindfully integrate not just the multiple parts of ourselves but also those parts of us that exist within our social context so that we may live fully and whole.

I am able to offer in-person therapy sessions and telehealth using a HIPAA secure platform.

I have space to take on new individual and relationship clients although limited.

Kindly reach out to me by email if you have any questions or would like to connect.

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“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.”
— Maya Angelou

- Services -

Couples or Relationship Therapy


Individual Therapy


Adult Family Therapy

Areas of Specialty:

  • Relational systems, especially mixed or inter-ethnoracial couples/relationships with intersecting identities

  • Interpersonal distress due to differences such as cultural or neurodiverse relational dynamics

  • Trauma such as post-traumatic stress or complex trauma

  • High-stress & occupational burnout

  • Anxiety or Depression

  • Identity or Cultural stressors

 
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Philosophy & Approach

 
 
 
 
 
 

“History is not the past, it is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”

— James Baldwin

 
 

I believe that people are resilient social beings. We each have the capacity to bounce back from challenges, maintain positive experiences, and grow from our experiences despite life stressors. At our core is our need for security and connection; both of which are crucial to our well-being. The manner we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us can affirm or disaffirm our feelings of safety, acceptance and belonging. To this end, I see that we primarily interact with the world through our emotions and bodies as experienced by our senses, processed by our thoughts, and reconciled by our language. It is from the place of social interdependence that we create a meaningful reality and experience an ultimate sense of well-being.

My therapeutic approach is to collaboratively and experientially guide clients towards their resilience, identify obstacles or blocks, to extend hope, and to empower them in creating narratives that allow for a fulfilling and satisfying life. I intentionally work with emotions to strengthen bonds in relationships, rely on the wisdom of the body to address trauma, and promote strength-based thinking. I view clients in the context of their attachment histories, families, racial or ethnic identities, cultures and social environments because these are the factors that shape our experiences of self, others and the world.

To collaborate entails your active engagement in therapy and to be experientially guided means helping you reconnect with your body and emotions in real time.

I believe, consistent with Eubanks and Goldfried’s common change principles (2019), that change happens through the process of therapy when. . .

  • we have a secure working relationship;

  • we can access new insights and hope together;

  • we are able to facilitate you having different experiences from the ones your body currently holds, including with your loved ones; and

  • we consistently acknowledge the shifts you are making.

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