Karen Santos, PACFA
12 years in practice
Karen Santos is a PACFA credentialed psychotherapist and social worker practising in Australia.
License and registration
- PACFA
- 23261 · expires June 2026
- Years in practice
- 12
- Languages
- English, Tagalog
Details are as listed on the therapist's public professional profile. You can check the registration with the body that granted it.
About Karen
Karen Santos is a PACFA credentialed psychotherapist and social worker practising in Australia. She brings 12 years of clinical experience and a calm, steady presence to sessions. Karen speaks English and Tagalog and aims to make therapy straightforward and practical for people in distress.
She helps with anxiety, stress, depression, grief and parenting concerns. She also supports people facing trauma and life changes, and works with related issues such as attachment, body image and coping with chronic illness.
Background and approach
Karen keeps language clear and aims to make each session feel manageable. Her background includes community mental health case management and ongoing trauma counselling. Those roles sharpened her focus on what matters most to each person.
She uses what people already know about themselves to build steady progress. Karen draws on several therapy approaches to meet different needs. She uses Emotionally-Focused Therapy to help people understand and shift strong emotions.
She also works with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas to address unhelpful thoughts and to clarify values and actions. Sessions are collaborative and paced to the person. Karen aims to create a respectful space where people can be curious about patterns, try new ways of coping, and work toward clearer everyday choices.
She invites people to bring what matters most into the room and to shape the path forward together.
Focus areas and approaches
Everything Karen lists on their public professional profile, in their own terms.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
- Self esteem
- Depression
- Parenting issues
- Coping with life changes
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Karen names
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Narrative Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
Naming an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist lists and does not check training records.
Online support
How therapeutic approaches translate to online sessions
Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) helps people notice and understand strong feelings and the interaction patterns that keep them stuck. Online EFT sessions can guide people to name emotions and try new responses in the moment, which often changes how they feel day to day.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on values, mindful noticing, and small actions that move a person toward what matters. In remote sessions ACT techniques can be practised between appointments, helping people test short experiments and build a life aligned with their priorities.
Client-Centred Therapy places the person’s experience at the centre and aims to create a respectful, non-judgemental space. That approach fits well with video or phone work because it keeps attention on the person’s own pace and concerns.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with the person about goals and preferences and then choose methods together. That collaborative process means approaches can be blended or adjusted as needs change.
Online sessions by video, phone, live chat or text-based messaging offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions need less bandwidth, live chat can suit shorter check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflections between sessions. These options help people fit therapy into busy lives and different routines.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. It does not change what you pay or the order of the listings.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Karen commonly help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, depression, grief and parenting challenges, plus trauma and related issues such as attachment, body image and chronic illness coping.
What is her therapeutic style like?
Her style is collaborative and straightforward. Sessions focus on understanding strong emotions, practical coping, and small steps that fit everyday life.
How much experience does she have?
She has 12 years of clinical experience, including community mental health case management and ongoing trauma counselling work.
What credentials and location are listed?
She is PACFA credentialed and practices in Australia.
Which languages are available for sessions?
Sessions are offered in English and Tagalog.
Can people outside Australia have sessions?
International clients are not currently accepted; sessions are provided to people located in Australia.
What session formats does she offer and how do costs work?
She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Cost varies with location and therapist availability and uses a subscription that can be cancelled at any time.
How do I begin therapy with her?
Select the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.
Is this your profile?
Ask us to correct details or take the page down.
Contact us