Karen Volcy-Sylvain

I began working as a Registered Nurse in the year 2000. However, my passion for helping people in a deeper, more emotional way led me to pursue a second career in mental health counseling. I earned my MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2018, and since 2021, I’ve been working with individuals from all walks of life in a private practice setting.

I truly understand how your emotional health can affect your physical health and vice versa. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the different things we juggle: health, finances, relationships, work, family and everything else. Stress can pile up before you even realize its effect on your wellbeing. Chronic stress is a known contributor to health conditions and shifts in sleep, mood, and energy levels. Sometimes it's not always clear what is causing these shifts which can be exhausting and confusing. Digging deeper into what's going can help you feel better by gaining clarity and a starting point to more balance.

My approach to therapy is relaxed, conversational and focused on the whole person. Empathetic, non judgmental and sincere, I view the relationship with my clients as a valued partnership that works best with mutual respect, honesty and trust. I take an integrative approach to therapy, which allows me to customize treatment strategies for an individual’s unique needs. Drawing from a variety of therapeutic models, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Psychoanalytic approaches, and Solution-Focused techniques, I’ve been able to help individuals aging from 18 to adulthood effectively manage depression, anxiety, relationship issues, trauma, stress, self esteem issues, chronic health conditions, life transitions, work challenges and grief.

In my sessions, you can expect to speak freely, openly and without judgement. I work on building your trust by getting to know you and what matters to you. Clients typically describe me as "easy to talk to" and feel "very comfortable." We laugh often and I provide relatable examples through shared life experiences to educate, support and guide. I also challenge you to think, explore and change what has not been working for you. My goal is to help you work on areas that feel most burdensome. Typically, clients and I work on figuring out the root causes of what they're going through. They learn about the relationship between thoughts, feelings and actions; focusing on how to change the negative thinking patterns that serve as blockages. They also learn to manage stress, utilize coping skills, communicate better, look at how past experiences or unmet emotional needs are affecting them, resolve conflicts, problem solve, improve relationships and develop better overall health habits, You've got one body, one mind and one life to live! I want to help you figure out what's keeping you from living it to the fullest!