Kari Fager, LCSW

Kari Fager is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who helps people manage anxiety, stress, grief, and major life changes. She works with people facing trauma, depression, parenting strain, and self-esteem struggles. Sessions can be faith-based when clients prefer that perspective.

Kari uses clear, practical strategies to help people make small changes that add up. She leans on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to spot and shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. She also uses trauma-focused tools when past events keep causing distress.

She earned a Master of Social Work from Dominican University and holds an LCSW in California. Her background includes clinical and community work, both in the United States and abroad. Those varied roles shaped a flexible approach to care.

In sessions she focuses on strengths and on concrete skills clients can try between meetings. Conversations are collaborative - she helps people set goals, test new habits, and track progress. Over time the aim is to reduce symptoms and improve day-to-day functioning.

Outside of work she spends time with family and enjoys being outdoors. She is also working on socializing a labradoodle named Norah to become a therapy dog someday.

Approaches for trauma and everyday stress online

Kari uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people spot patterns of thinking that feed anxiety and low mood, then test new, healthier ways of responding. CBT is goal-oriented and often includes practical exercises to try between sessions.

When past events continue to cause distress, she can use trauma-focused methods and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing to reduce the intensity of painful memories. These approaches focus on processing upsetting experiences so they interfere less with daily life.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Kari will discuss options, listen to goals, and recommend steps based on needs and preferences. Decisions about methods are made collaboratively so the plan fits each person's pace and priorities.

Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited, live chat supports shorter check-ins, and text messaging helps keep a conversation going between appointments. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to continue care when in-person visits are not practical.