About Karen
Karen Crawley-Buckholtz is a Maryland-based clinician with two decades of experience in mental health care. She holds an MD and is licensed as an LCPC and LPC. Karen focuses on stress, anxiety, grief, depression, trauma, relationship and intimacy concerns, and ADHD, using approachable care to help people manage hard moments.
Her work emphasizes respect and compassion. She listens first, then helps people set clear, realistic goals. Sessions draw on practical skills and reflective conversation so clients can use their strengths in day-to-day life.
Background and approach
Karen uses a mix of methods to match each person’s needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps with changing unhelpful thinking and behavior. Mindfulness practices support emotion regulation and present-moment focus.
Psychodynamic ideas can help people understand recurring patterns and deeper sources of distress. Over twenty years she has worked with people facing loss, illness, caregiving strain, and work-related stress. She also has experience with issues such as body image, eating concerns, chronic pain, and adjustment after trauma.
That background informs how she tailors sessions for individual situations. Practical needs are part of the plan. Sessions can focus on coping skills, improving sleep and routine, addressing communication or commitment worries, or navigating life changes.
The therapist supports step-by-step progress and checks in regularly to adjust goals and techniques as needed.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and building on a person's strengths to set goals and make changes; it is useful for many concerns like stress, self-esteem, and relationship difficulties. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people spot and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can reduce anxiety, lift mood, and improve daily functioning. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers concrete skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and clearer communication, often used when emotions feel overwhelming.Deciding which approach to use is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before. Together they pick methods and adjust the plan over time so sessions stay practical and relevant.
Online therapy makes it easier to fit care into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction and longer sessions for deeper work. Phone sessions can be a good option when a camera is not helpful or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging support shorter check-ins, quick skill practice, or follow-up between appointments. These options increase flexibility and let people keep continuity of care across different routines and schedules.
Questions people ask
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What credentials and location are listed?
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Maryland, Virginia
- Languages
- English
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