My Approach to Therapy:
People who experience life-changing results with me in therapy often have a reflective or perceptive way of engaging with their lives. Some arrive with a lot of insight about their history and relationships. Others are only beginning to notice patterns they have never had language for before. Both are welcome here.
Sometimes people already understand their family dynamics or recognize certain relational patterns but still feel stuck in them. Other times therapy is the first place where things like enmeshment, emotional neglect, or long standing family roles begin to make sense. Wherever someone is starting from, therapy becomes a space to explore those experiences with care and curiosity.
Rather than staying only at the level of ideas, we often explore how emotional patterns live in the body, the nervous system, and in the ways you have learned to relate to yourself over time. When those layers begin to come into conversation with one another, something different can start to happen. Not a forced transformation, but a gradual sense of more space, more understanding, and often more kindness toward yourself.
Deep curiosity and attunement
Curiosity is one of the foundations of how I work. Rather than approaching your experiences with quick interpretations or assumptions, I try to understand how your inner world makes sense from your perspective.
Some experiences are difficult to explain because they were never fully understood in the first place. Therapy can become a space where those parts of your story are explored with patience and careful attention. When someone feels genuinely seen and understood, things that once felt confusing or tangled often begin to unfold in a clearer way.
Working with compassion rather than pressure
People who come to therapy often carry a strong inner critic. They may be used to analyzing themselves, questioning their reactions, or holding themselves to high internal standards.
In our work together, we often shift the tone of that inner relationship. Instead of approaching your patterns with judgment or pressure, we explore them with curiosity and compassion. Over time, this can soften shame and create space for a more supportive and understanding relationship with yourself.
Nervous system awareness
Emotional patterns are not only psychological. They are also physiological. Experiences of stress, trauma, and complicated relationships can shape how the nervous system responds long after the original situations have passed.
Part of our work together may involve noticing what your body is holding in the present moment. That could include subtle shifts in sensation, emotional responses that arise quickly, or patterns of activation and shutdown. Bringing gentle awareness to these experiences can help your system gradually develop more flexibility and ease.
My Background:
I have always been drawn to the inner worlds people carry and the stories underneath what is visible on the surface. My interest in psychology led me to study it at Pepperdine University, and later to earn my Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Denver Seminary. In between, I spent several years in Nashville pursuing songwriting full time, which deepened my appreciation for emotional honesty and the kinds of truths people do not always say out loud.
My work as a therapist is shaped both by training and by life experience. In my own life and within my family system, I have experienced mental health struggles, loss, addiction, pain, trauma, and complex relational dynamics. I share that because it matters that the person sitting across from you has known something about suffering, has spent time making sense of it, and has learned to let that experience shape how they relate to themselves and others with more care.
My life experiences have changed me, and my pain is part of what allows me to sit with others in theirs. Let me also be clear, therapy is not a place where my story enters the room. I am not here to place my experience onto yours or to blur the focus. What I bring is someone who has engaged deeply with their own inner world and continues to do so, so that I can stay present with you in yours.
Outside of the therapy room, I spend a lot of time with my dog Pretzel, get outside whenever I can, and love things like baking, traveling, and photographing sunsets. I love my people deeply, and I am also someone who will leave a social gathering the moment I know I am ready. My friends would describe me as unashamedly authentic, thoughtful, and attuned, which is something I value in bringing to my work as well.
If you’re here, there’s likely a reason. You don’t have to have it all figured out to begin.
Training and education
Karianne Larson earned her degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Denver Seminary in 2022 and graduated from Pepperdine University in 2015.
Her clinical training includes DBT training in 2022, EMDR training through an EMDRIA established provider in 2023, Family Constellations training in 2024, Focalizing training (a somatic framework for working with the nervous system and lived experience), and Exposure and Response Prevention training in 2026.
I care deeply about staying clinically grounded and current. I am often listening to podcasts, reading books, engaging with new literature, and continuing to learn from thoughtful voices in the field. Some of the people who have shaped my thinking include Nick Werber, Adam Young, Hillary McBride, David Kessler, and others.
I also believe therapy is shaped not only by what a therapist knows, but by who a therapist is becoming. Formal trainings matter deeply, and so do humility, community, belonging, self reflection, and doing my own work. I stay connected to my own therapy and meaningful community spaces so that when I am with clients, the room can be about them, not about me.
