Kara Kazemba (she/her)

My Approach to Helping

I'm a former CPS social worker, which lends me to really appreciate how early childhood experiences tend to shape how we show up in the world today. With that understanding, I use a variety of modalities including attachment, DBT, EMDR, and somatic experiencing- tailoring your therapy to fit you and how your brain operates. After the free consultation, we would do a "life story" session, where I come to understand the circumstances bringing you to therapy. At the end of that appointment we discuss your hopes and goals- AKA how will you know if you get to "fire" me? Then we come up with a "treatment plan" together- talking about how we will get there in our sessions together. As I mentioned before, I am blunt. My approach does include taking a look at how you contribute to patterns and situations. Then, the plan is to provide you with tools and supports to break those cycles.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

I became a social worker because of the person-in-environment perspective that the profession takes. As a counselor, I need to appreciate that you can't heal in the same environment that made you sick. That means being mindful of not only direct interpersonal trauma, but trauma at the macro level as well. I try as hard as possible to be anti-racist and LGBTQ+ affirming, and where I falter or fall short I will 100 percent own that. I am active in the LGBTQ+ community and sit on my local chamber's diversity council.