PSYCHOTHERAPIST
Kara Holmes Araujo, LMSW (she/her)
Kara is now offering in-person sessions in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in addition to virtual video sessions.
I’m glad you’re here. It takes courage to reach out when you’re suffering. Symptoms (such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, etc.), often arise when we are struggling to be with—truly see, explore, and accept—difficult aspects of our lives or our pasts and the painful feelings they bring. It’s common to lack this capacity—we weren’t meant to do this alone. Many of us haven’t received the support we need to hold life’s pain.
I bring the capacity to help you contain and explore your feelings and inner experiences and the expertise to help you understand and organize your inner world. Together, we will make sense of what has happened to you and what you’re currently going through. We do this together, but the expanded capacity and coherency stays with you beyond our sessions. I will reflect back to you the truth and beauty of who you are and help you access your unique essence more clearly and fully.
When we can sense ourselves, make sense to ourselves, understand our experiences, and when feelings no longer overwhelm us, we can move forward in life with confidence knowing we can not only withstand the full human experience, we can revel in it. Because we can feel more, we are more present. We learn we can face life on life’s terms. Symptoms slowly recede because they’re no longer needed. We get to really live.
Ours will be a real relationship, and you will come to know me. I will provide a space where you can show up as your true self and I will honor you with unconditional positive regard, interest, deep empathy, and honesty. You won’t be seen as a diagnosis or a set of symptoms; I will focus on your strengths, your resilience, and your potential. If we have a rupture, we’ll repair it.
I’m down-to-earth, compassionate, gently straightforward, and I bring humor to sessions. I really like my clients and they matter to me. I consider them in between sessions and engage in regular clinical supervision and continuing education to gain a fresh perspective on their concerns. I’ve been engaging in my own therapeutic work for more than a decade and am committed to my continued growth.
I provide psychotherapy to adults, and while I’m primarily a relational and somatic therapist, I also integrate elements of multiple modalities including attachment-based, psychodynamic, internal family systems (IFS), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). I don’t expect you to be informed on these modalities—I will provide education and we can discuss what approaches might best resonate with you in order to tailor your therapy. I strive to be anti-oppressive and consider the ways the facets of your identity—race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, etc.—interact with intergenerational, cultural, and societal factors to impact your lived experience. I welcome and bring in the exploration of privilege and oppression in session and how it might be impacting your life, and/or our relationship.
I treat many concerns, and my areas of particular interest are:
Relationship doubt and anxiety
Anxiety, panic, intrusive thoughts, OCD, perfectionism, and hypervigilance
Developmental trauma, childhood trauma, and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)
Adult children of emotionally immature parents/substance abusers, and/or dysfunctional families
Recovery from narcissistic abuse, and/or “toxic” relationships
Chronic pain
Religious trauma
I welcome the chance to learn more about you.
Kara holds a Master of Social Work degree from the New York University Silver School of Social Work; is certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy with the Pain Psychology Center; and is a certified Sexual Assault Counselor with Mount Sinai’s Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention program (SAVI); and is a support group facilitator with Right to Know for those affected by misattributed parentage/adoptees.
License #123687
“Kara is amazing at what she does, and I feel so inspired after each meeting with her. As a therapist-in-training, I am truly so grateful to have her as a model for what a really good therapist is. She has provided so many useful tools and genius/comforting ways to look at hard things. I'm so grateful to have found her and been able to work with her.” - S.W. (used with client permission)
