My Therapy Practice

I work with kids who have big feelings and often even bigger behaviors. Having worked in the child welfare system, residential treatment centers, schools, and outpatient therapy settings for over 35 years I have effectively worked with just about any issue you can imagine. I have often been the last stop for families. I have observed and understand the desperation many families feel and I am confident I can help. One family shared with me “We have gotten more out of a week of therapy with you than all the years of previous therapy we’ve had combined!”

Attachment-Based

I work from an attachment-based perspective. This means I rarely work with children alone in therapy sessions. I can’t effectively work with children without working just as much, or even more, with the most important people in their world…their parents. As a trained family therapist, I also know that the entire family is impacted by a child who is struggling so family therapy must be part of the therapy process. Siblings often feel forgotten and alone when tremendous energy must be focused on one child in the family. It’s often essential to involve them in the therapy process too.

Areas of Expertise

In addition to working with attachment-based difficulties, I have expertise in the areas of foster care, adoption, and childhood trauma. Children I work most effectively with are commonly diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), Anxiety Disorders, Childhood Bipolar Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), ADHD, and Depression.

I am a Certified Theraplay® Therapist, Trainer, and Supervisor. I am also a Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor™ (RPT-S). Some of the therapy approaches I am certified or trained in include Theraplay®, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC). I am a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) practitioner.

TESTIMONIALS

  • From our initial meeting, Karen immediately stood out to me as being of unmatched ability and experience compared to any other therapist I had worked with before. She was so thorough in assessing our case, so meticulous in planning a course of treatment, and so wise in adapting the plan as progress necessitated. Her observations and explanations were always extraordinarily deep, and gave me the kind of hope that came from the happy surprise of discovering an authority I didn’t know I had.

    Parent

  • Karen was constantly delving further in her exploration of healing trauma, and constantly passing on the fruits of that learning to me in the most accessible and encouraging ways.

    Parent

  • In working with Karen, for once, therapy didn’t feel like a raffle where I hoped I’d increase my odds of walking away with something by buying more tickets. It felt like a lovingly prepared meal, where I walked away a little bit strengthened and a little bit brightened each time.

    Parent

For further details about my background, degrees, qualifications, and training click here for a link to my full CV.

To inquire further about my availability for therapy services please email me at: karen@karendoylebuckwalter.com

I do not accept insurance and I do not maintain a waiting list. I offer in-person and telehealth services. I am licensed to practice in SC, NC, GA, TX, WA, VA, DE, and PA.