About Kara
Kara Denahan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has been practicing for more than two decades. She offers individual therapy from her Rhode Island practice and draws on a long clinical background to help people navigate pain and change.
Background and approach
Her style is steady and patient, and she focuses on practical steps clients can use between sessions. She began in a different field, earning a Bachelor of Science in Design with a specialty in photography.
In her thirties she returned to school and completed a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Rhode Island in 1997. After working for others, she later opened her own practice and has been providing care ever since.
Kara integrates mindfulness and meditation into conversations about stress and relationships. She studied meditation inspired by the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and brings those practices into sessions in simple, usable ways.
She also studied Internal Family Systems and uses the parts-based ideas to help clients recognize internal conflicts and find greater self-acceptance. Her work addresses a wide range of concerns including anxiety, depression, trauma and relationship problems.
She pays attention to attachment issues, grief, addiction, career strain, parenting stress, and questions of life purpose. She aims to help people manage symptoms while also understanding underlying patterns.
Over 23 years she has continued learning from contemporary ideas such as Polyvagal Theory and interpersonal neurobiology. That ongoing study informs practical techniques she offers for calming the nervous system and improving connection.
Sessions are conversational, rooted in respect, and tailored to each person's needs.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Attachment-Based Therapy emphasizes understanding how early relationships shape current connection patterns. The therapist helps clients notice how attachment styles show up in adult relationships and develop ways to feel more supported with others. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing them with practical experiments. It offers clear skills for anxiety, depression, and recurring negative thinking. Mindfulness Therapy brings short breathing and noticing exercises into sessions to reduce reactivity and increase focus during stressful moments.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with the client to identify goals, preferences, and what feels most useful in session. Over a few meetings they will adjust methods, mixing mindfulness, attachment work, and CBT tools to fit each person's needs.
Online therapy can make it easier to fit care into a busy life. Video calls let people meet face-to-face without travel. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can work for a quick check-in. Live chat and text-based messaging provide brief, written check-ins between meetings. These options support continuity of care, flexible scheduling, and different ways to work based on what the client prefers.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style?
How much experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
Which session formats does she use?
How does payment and cost work?
What should I do to begin therapy?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Rhode Island
- Languages
- English