Karen Gano is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh and 33 years of clinical counseling experience. She maintains licensure across multiple U.S. jurisdictions and in Australia, and holds licensed clinical social worker credentials in both Colorado and New Mexico. She is based in New Mexico and brings a long-standing commitment to supporting people through difficult transitions.

Her practice centers on what she calls Empowerment Counseling. Adopting a motivational interviewing approach, she integrates compassion-focused work, client-centered care, solution-focused brief therapy, mindfulness, and strength-based methods to help clients shift their perspective and reach personal goals. Her practice is holistic and goal-oriented, with a primary focus on women navigating life transitions such as separation, divorce, career change, relocation, an empty nest, or illness.

In addition to working with individuals facing life changes, Karen provides counseling to health care workers. Her background as a medical social worker includes experience in trauma, emergency medicine, critical care, oncology, palliative care, and domestic abuse settings, which informs her understanding of both professional and personal stressors.

Her clinical aim is to empower clients to expand their support team, find and strengthen their voice, and increase self-awareness and self-esteem so they can make meaningful changes. Her professional mantra is “Self-Care + Time = Healing.” She offers practical coping strategies and tools designed to help people move from surviving to thriving and looks forward to working with those seeking that growth.