Hi and Welcome!
Karen McKinney is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate with a specialization in trauma and crisis intervention. Karen believes therapy is a complex and beautiful journey and enjoys walking alongside her clients as they grow and work towards realizing their best selves. She uses many approaches and tailors therapy to the specific and unique needs of each client. She has worked in a variety of settings, including an inpatient substance use recovery center, an outpatient clinical setting at the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, and a community crisis response team for children with trauma. Karen is licensed to treat all mental health disorders and has experience working with many different clients. She feels especially competent working with treatment resistant depression, trauma, sexual assault, personality disorders, self harm and suicidal ideation, complex PTSD, the LGBTQA+ community, eating disorders, nutritional psychology, and holistic health and wellness practices, and lifestyle changes.
My Story
Karen’s undergraduate degree is in communications from the University of South Carolina, but she found her passion for counseling during her first master’s degree at Boston University studying international relations and communication. It was during her time abroad studying global governance, nuclear disarmament, peace keeping, and conflict resolution that she became acutely aware of the hardships people were facing around the world. And after witnessing the traumas of refugees while interning at the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, she knew she wanted to add to her education to be better equipped to work with these individuals and their unique needs. So, she went back to school and completed her second master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling in 2020. It was during this program that she fell in love with counseling and the unique relationships she was able to form with her clients rather than focusing on government level policy changes. In her spare time, Karen enjoys hiking, cycling, yoga, traveling, and spending time with her family and fur children in Charlotte.