Kara Kihm

Hello, I’m Kara Kihm, LCSW. I specialize in working with Highly Sensitive People (HSPs). As a highly sensitive person myself, I understand both the challenges and the gifts that can come with experiencing the world deeply.

Many of the client's I work with are anxious, overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, or burned out. They may have spent years caring for everyone else, pushing through their own needs, or living in a constant state of stress and survival.

My work helps clients understand their nervous systems, reconnect with themselves, and develop greater capacity to feel grounded and safe in their bodies and emotions. Rather than viewing sensitivity as something that needs to be fixed, I help clients learn how to understand, honor, and work with their sensitivity.

I am also a faith-based therapist with Christian roots. For clients who desire it, I welcome the integration of faith, prayer, spiritual formation, and relationship with God into the therapeutic process. I believe emotional healing and spiritual growth can work beautifully alongside evidence-based mental health care.

My approach is compassionate, relational, and holistic, honoring the connection between mind, body, and spirit.

I believe healing involves more than simply understanding our experiences intellectually. Our bodies and nervous systems can continue to respond to experiences long after the moment itself has passed.

My approach is integrative and focused on the connection between mind, body, emotions, relationships, and spirit. Together, we may explore nervous system patterns, emotional wounds, limiting beliefs, protective responses, and patterns that once helped you survive but may no longer serve you.

I help clients slow down and develop greater awareness of what is happening within their bodies and emotions rather than continually pushing through discomfort. Our work may incorporate nervous system regulation, somatic and mindfulness-based practices, cognitive and emotional processing, boundary work, and exploration of relationship patterns.

I use Cognitive Behavior Therapy,-CBT, Dialetical Behavior Therapy-DBT, Emotional Freedom Technique-EFT (tapping) and Somatic Experiencing-SE in my sessions.

For Christian clients who want faith integrated into therapy, we can also explore healing through a Christian framework—making space for prayer, Scripture, discernment, identity, grace, and your relationship with God. Faith integration is always guided by your beliefs, comfort level, and therapeutic goals.

Your first session is an opportunity for me to get to know you—not simply your symptoms or the things you would like to change, but the experiences that have shaped you and what you hope your life can become.

We’ll talk about what brought you to therapy, what feels difficult right now, and what you would like to experience differently. We may also begin exploring your nervous system, relationships, emotional patterns, sensitivity, and, when important to you, your faith and spiritual life.

You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what you need or how to explain everything. We can begin where you are and move at a pace that feels supportive.

Learning to understand and honor my own sensitivity profoundly changed the way I experience my life. I share more of that personal journey in my book, Discovering My Wings. That experience is part of why I’m passionate about helping other women move beyond simply surviving and begin living with greater freedom, authenticity, connection, and purpose.

My hope is that therapy becomes a place where you feel deeply seen while also gaining practical tools to create meaningful and sustainable change.