ABOUT US
Karen Dreher is a counsellor in Fitzroy North who works with adolescents, adults & couples. Karen has a Masters of Counselling, a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology, a Masters of Education and has done further specialised training in Gottman Couples Therapy. She is an accredited & registered member of Australia’s peak body for clinical counsellors, namely The Australian Counselling Association (ACA).
Karen has worked in private clinical practice supporting adults & couples with a variety of presentations. She has a particular interest in supporting adults experiencing difficulties with communication & relationships, anxiety, depression, trauma, identity, grief, & challenging life transitions (eg : birth of a child, divorce, ageing). Women’s health is also an area of significant interest.
Prior to working in clinical practice, Karen also spent many years working in educational settings. Karen provides support for adolescents navigating the many issues encountered during this critical period of life (eg : difficulties with school , friendship & social media issues, alcohol/drugs experiences, exploring identity, sexuality, gender). She provides support with mental health (eg : anxiety, depression, ADHD) and learning difficulties and those who have experienced trauma (eg: death of a parent, sexual assault).
Karen is available for counselling support at Fitzroy North Counselling which is located at 404 Queen’s Pde, Fitzroy North. Face to face or telehealth sessions are welcome.
Karen has lived Northside for over 15 years and has four young adult children, a labrador retriever, and two cats.
Your Story, Your Space, Your Pace.
Karen is a person-centred counsellor who enjoys the incredible diversity of human narrative. Karen provides a safe, confidential space & respects her clients own personal meanings & feelings associated with their life experiences. She understands the importance of sharing our own story and being seen & understood without judgement. Sharing our story can be incredibly difficult as it may open up some wounds that we may not have fully processed. Karen provides a warm, authentic counselling space that will support you in sharing your story, in creating your own meaning, and in building your own strategies to navigate your identified concerns. Ultimately Karen provides support for you to author your own narrative and to move towards living a more connected, authentic, healthy self.
SUPPORT FOR
Adolescents & Adults
Anxiety (generalized, social, performance, withdrawal/avoidance from life.)
Depression (low mood, social isolation, low motivation, withdrawal/avoidance from life.)
Trauma (sexual assault, loss, harsh/critical/aggressive relationships & their impact, events.)
Difficult relationships (communication difficulties with self, with partner, friends, family & in workplace.)
Identity (who am I? Me, sexuality, gender.)
Life transitions (parenting, divorce, menopause, new job, new school, school to Uni.)
Grief (sadness & loss is unique to each person & it is important that the magnitude of our loss is heard & validated.)
Communication & conflict management difficulties.
Loneliness & disengagement.
The loss of friendship & fun.
The loss of sexual intimacy.
Values conflict.
Infidelity & how to re-build trust/and or where to go from here in our relationship?
Difficulties in the management of external stressors impacting the relationship eg : work, children, family, friendships.
The wondering around some big questions eg : how did we get here? What happened to the old us?
Are we compatible? Exploring some patterns that have sneaked into the relationship and considering whether there is a future for this relationship?
Couples
Counsellors provide person centred professional care. Counsellors listen with empathy, help clarify issues, identify goals, & explore thinking, emotions, physiological responses and behaviour that may be getting us a little stuck. Counsellors support their clients in developing self care & strategies to manage diverse presenting problems. Our diffulties are often associated with past traumatic experiences & memory. Sometimes they are in response to certain unhelpful thinking patterns; or are in response to our current rapidly changing world & accompanying painful or negative thoughts, emotions, physiological responses & behaviour. Counsellors provide a confidential, emotionally safe space that supports the client in engaging in their own self-understanding, identity and healthy well-being. Counsellors are regulated by the Australian Counselling Association (ACA). Counsellors do not medicate or diagnose their clients, rather aim to listen and empower their clients with their own self leadership skills. Karen has qualifications in both Psychology and Counselling & likes to work closely with General Practitioners (GPs) & other health professionals if further assessment is required.
What is Counselling?
Individual counselling
Karen is responsive to the individual and therefore utilises a variety of evidenced based therapeutic practices. Karen utilises Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution Focused Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Her counselling space includes deeper talk therapy that integrates psychotherapeutic approaches that explore unconscious thoughts, themes, & experiences from the past (eg : childhood, school, the work place, an intimate relationship) & encourages a curiosity in regards to the relationship with our present thoughts, emotions & behaviour that may be problematic & hindering a sense of personal fulfilment.
THERAPEUTIC
APPROACHES
Couples counselling
Karen’s therapeutic approach considers the important relationship between healthy communication, empowerment & intimacy. Karen also utilises the fundamentals of Gottman method couples therapy based on the significant research by Dr John & Julie Gottman and The Sound Relationship House.
Gottman & Gottman’s research on couples found that approximately 31% of couple conflict is solvable whilst 69% of disagreements in all relationships are associated with unresolvable perpetual problems. Gottman & Gottman’s research highlighted that it is not the presence of conflict itself that is important, but actually how couples manage conflict through dialogue that predicts success or failure of a relationship. What matters is not solving the problem but rather the affect when discussing the problem, acceptance of the partner, understanding what lies beneath, the presence of humour, and a desire to improve or actively cope with this perpetual problem.
We will work together in helping you identify your relationship’s strengths, its wounds, its areas for improvement, and specific ways to build a stronger relationship. Couples therapy provides tools to manage conflict in a healthy way, enhance friendship, create shared meaning, deepen trust & commitment and in turn deepen intimacy in a relationship.
Couples therapy may also assist in helping you recognise that your relationship has reached its journey.
Contact
Karen looks forward to working with you.
Email : info@karendrehercounselling.com
Ph : 0400 952 602