Services

Dr. Alison Karasz, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in adult individuals and couples therapy, using Psychodynamic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Narrative Therapy techniques.

Individual Treatment

As a mental health researcher, I bring a strong evidence-based, empirical perspective to my work as a therapist. Research shows that the single most important key to successful outcomes in therapy is a strong, caring, positive, and mutually respectful relationship between the client and the therapist. Put simply, the relationship with the therapist should bring healing, often as early as the third or fourth session.Early sessions often focus on building this relationship.

My approach strongly emphasizes action. Your memories of childhood or the deeper past may play an important role in treatment. But I believe that most emotional suffering is closely linked to your experiences in the present--experiences in core, culturally shaped life domains such as work, love and family. Insight into these experiences should lead to changes in behavior, which in turn help you follow a pathway to change.  Learning to tolerate anger and anxiety can paradoxically bring intense relief, which then frees energy to address life problems.

Couples Therapy

As a researcher on gender, marriage, and mental health, I bring this broader perspective to couples work as well. Often couples are struggling with conflicts that feel completely unique to them. A broader perspective helps to identify how conflicts and stresses in our culture, particularly related to gender roles, child rearing practices and ideologies, domestic tasks, and pressures of work, can lead couples to take adversarial positions that spiral downward, endangering the marriage itself.

My approach to couples counseling is highly action-oriented, with an emphasis on role playing and enactment of marital problems within the safe confines of the session. I will coach you on how to communicate your desires and your emotions using a diplomatic language that will help you to achieve your goals in your marriage—which almost always includes more love and support from your partner.

Though I do not conduct family or child psychotherapy, parental counseling on issues of development, sleep, feeding, and discipline are often addressed in couples work.

Paintings by Daniel Ford