Services
About My Clients
Maybe you look like you have it together. You show up, you carry the invisible load, and almost no one knows how tired you are underneath. Maybe you are in the thick of pregnancy or postpartum, or you have had to step back from family to protect your peace. Maybe you just want a therapist who leads with empathy instead of homework. We work with sensitive, self-doubting, often neurodivergent people, with women, and with survivors of narcissistic and emotional abuse. You are welcome here.
My Background and Approach
Wholehearted Counseling is a feminist, trauma-informed group practice. We are named for the concept of the Wholehearted: operating in life from a place of worthiness. Part of that is learning to separate facts from evaluations. It may be a fact that being on time is hard, or that saying no feels terrifying. But the belief about that fact is shaped by the voices and systems we were exposed to throughout our lives. What if we were conditioned to be self-critical and to dehumanize our struggle, rather than listen to it as a clue that something in our environment is toxic? Maybe sensitive people are the canaries in the coal mine, and we should listen to them more. Whether the pattern is over-functioning, under-functioning, people-pleasing, or people-avoiding, we work together to understand where it came from and why it once made sense. Our work is relational and person-centered. Karen Haag, LPC, founded the practice, which offers in-person sessions in Salem and telehealth across Oregon.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
We are a feminist practice, and we say that out loud on purpose. We believe most people walk around in cages they cannot quite see: the rule that says be easy, be useful, do not need too much, do not take up space. So much of healing is just turning the light on so you can see the bars, and then realizing the door was never locked. We believe therapy should build you up, not break you down into a problem to be fixed. We believe survivors of narcissistic and emotional abuse are not too sensitive and were never the problem, and that sometimes the healthiest, hardest choice is distance from the people who hurt us. We do not glorify being brave or being strong here. We do not praise perfection over progress, and we will not act like there is something you have to do to be good enough. We show up as humans. We are real, we celebrate the wins, and we meet struggle with compassion.