Karen Santos, PACFA

Karen Santos is credentialed in Australia as a psychotherapist and social worker and holds PACFA, a professional credential for psychotherapists in Australia. She brings 12 years of experience supporting adults, adolescents and children through challenging life moments, including trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, parenting difficulties, grief and major life transitions.

Her practice blends evidence-based trauma and mental health counselling with recent community mental health case management experience, which enhances her ability to understand and empower clients. Karen has specialist training in the neurobiology of trauma and developmental trauma, Synergetic Play Therapy (SPT) for working with children, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT), and she is currently strengthening her skills in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Drawing on a diverse skill set, Karen works with individuals as well as dyads such as parent and child to address a wide range of concerns, from attachment and abandonment issues to caregiver stress, chronic pain and eating-related difficulties. She aims to create a supportive space for self-reconnection, remaining curious to uncover each personâs specific needs and prioritising collaborative steps toward improved wellbeing.

Therapeutic approaches and accessible online care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) encourages acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings while guiding action toward personal values. It can be helpful for people facing anxiety, depression and major life changes because it focuses on meaningful living rather than symptom elimination.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers practical tools to identify and change unhelpful thinking and behavioral patterns. It is commonly used to address stress, anxiety, low mood and coping with everyday challenges by building skills that reduce distress and improve functioning.

Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) helps people understand and reshape emotional responses and attachment patterns, making it useful for work with parent-child relationships, attachment issues and related emotional difficulties.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Karen works collaboratively with clients to determine which methods best match their needs, goals and personal preferences, adapting techniques as the relationship and objectives evolve.

Online therapy offers flexible access to care through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging, allowing clients to choose formats that fit their schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of support and access licensed professionals from different locations when local in-person services are not practical.