Karena Franses, LCSW

Karena Franses is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 28 years of clinical experience in California. She brings a long career in hospital and private-practice settings to her work. Her approach is shaped by steady compassion and a belief that people already hold the seeds of their own healing.

She spent over two decades supervising social work in a busy outpatient HIV clinic, where she supported many people through illness, loss, and addiction. That work informed her use of Motivational Interviewing with clients facing substance use and behavior change. In private practice she provided psychodynamic, self-psychology informed psychotherapy for individuals and couples, addressing relationship distress, body image, and trauma.

Karena brings a calm, reflective manner to sessions and practices meditation in her personal life. She aims to listen closely, name what is getting in the way, and help clear the fog around painful feelings. Her style is patient and grounded, with an emphasis on compassion and practical steps toward change.

She commonly helps people dealing with depression, bipolar concerns, anxiety, grief, and stress related to life changes. She also supports those facing addictions, intimacy difficulties, self-esteem challenges, and issues tied to LGBT identity and discrimination.

Her broader focus includes caregiver stress, cancer-related concerns, HIV and hospice and end-of-life counseling. Karena works in English and accepts international clients; practical details about sessions and scheduling are handled through the site’s start process.

Therapeutic approaches applied to online care

Karena uses Motivational Interviewing and psychodynamic ideas to guide online work. Motivational Interviewing is a short-term, goal-focused way to help people find their own reasons for change and build motivation for steps like cutting back on substances or changing habits. Psychodynamic Therapy looks at long-standing patterns and how past relationships shape current problems, which can help with repeated relationship issues, grief, or persistent mood problems.

Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. She will work with each person to identify priorities, try approaches that match those goals, and adjust the plan as needs evolve. Clients and therapist decide together what feels most useful in sessions.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so please confirm available options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, shorten check-in time when needed, or offer sessions without travel time. It can also allow someone to continue care across locations when life circumstances change. Licensed professionals adapt the pace and focus to what each person needs, whether the work is geared toward stopping or reducing addictive behavior, managing anxiety, or processing loss.