- Years in practice
- 7
- Credentials
- LMSW
- Licensed in
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
- Focus
- LGBT
- Focus
- Relationship issues
- Focus
- Trauma and abuse
About Karissa
Karissa Thomas is an LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker) based in Michigan. She aims to help people feel heard and understood and to give practical support for everyday struggles. Her style is direct but warm, and she values honesty and openness in sessions.
Karissa approaches sessions with curiosity and without judgment. She listens first and then helps people sort through feelings and choices. She uses straightforward language and practical steps rather than jargon so a parent can apply ideas between sessions.
Background and approach
Her work often focuses on parenting concerns, stress, anxiety, grief, depression, addiction, and relationship issues. She also supports people dealing with trauma, body image and eating concerns, career strain, and compassion fatigue. Karissa pays attention to how attachment, abandonment, and blended family situations affect daily life.
Therapeutic methods she draws on include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Attachment-Based Therapy, and Client-Centered Therapy. She adapts tools to each person so sessions feel useful and doable. Clients can expect a therapist who is practical, compassionate, and occasionally lighthearted.
Karissa helps people set small, realistic goals and notices progress along the way. Her aim is to make therapy feel like a collaborative, problem-solving process.
What Karissa works with
Everything Karissa lists, in the therapist's own terms. Parenting is the reason this directory exists; the rest shows what else Karissa helps people with.
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Eating disorders
- Coping with life changes
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Sleeping disorders
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
- Bipolar disorder
- Depression
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- ADHD
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Postpartum depression
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Karissa lists
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Gottman Method
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
Listing an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist names and does not check training records.
Approach-driven online therapy that fits family life
Karissa often brings Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into online sessions. ACT focuses on helping people notice what matters most and take small steps toward those values even when emotions are hard to manage. CBT looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions interact and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns.She treats the choice of approach as a collaborative process. Together with each person she discusses goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before. That conversation helps decide whether ACT, CBT, or other strategies will be most useful for the situation at hand.
Online therapy can make sessions easier to fit into busy family schedules. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when that is helpful. Phone sessions work when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging help people who prefer typing or want quick access between sessions. These options support flexibility so therapy can work around school runs, work breaks, and other responsibilities.
Questions people ask about Karissa
What concerns does she help with?
She works with a wide range of issues including parenting, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, eating and body image concerns, grief, addiction, and stress-related problems.
What is her therapeutic style like?
Her approach is nonjudgmental and curious. She is straightforward and practical, while keeping a compassionate and collaborative tone.
How much experience does she have?
She has seven years of clinical experience working as a social worker in mental health settings.
What credentials and location are listed?
Karissa holds an LMSW, which stands for Licensed Master Social Worker, and practices from Michigan.
Which languages are offered for sessions?
Sessions are offered in English, and she is able to work with international clients.
What session formats are available?
She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs and schedules.
How is cost handled?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with her?
Start by selecting the Start Therapy button, completing a short matching questionnaire, and then scheduling sessions according to therapist availability.
More therapists for parents in Michigan
All in Michigan
Natasha Wagner
LPC, LCPC
Michigan 20 years in practice
Supportive counselor for parents and adults
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship
Krystal Smith
LMSW
Michigan 11 years in practice
Supportive LMSW helping parents and adults
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship
- Family
Crystal Pasciak
LPC
Michigan 7 years in practice
Helping parents handle stress and parenting challenges
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship
- Self esteem