Karina Fernandez, LCSW

Karina Fernandez is a licensed clinical social worker with 16 years in mental health care. She focuses on helping people facing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and major life changes. She speaks English and Spanish and practices in Tennessee.

Karina trained with a Master of Social Work from Loma Linda University and has worked in settings that support people with PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She has experience supporting survivors of violent crime, including sexual assault, domestic violence, and homicide survivors, and she has worked with people coping with complex grief and loss.

Her approach is practical and person-focused. She uses client-centered methods to tailor work to each person's needs. She also draws on cognitive behavioral strategies to identify thoughts and actions that keep problems going, and mindfulness techniques to help people stay present and reduce overwhelm.

Karina can include skills from dialectical behavior therapy to strengthen emotion regulation and coping during stressful times. She also uses EMDR work as part of trauma-focused sessions when appropriate. In sessions she emphasizes strengths, helping people notice what has helped them before and build on it.

People come to Karina for help with relationship stress, parenting strain, caregiving burnout, codependency, sleep problems, and addictions. She aims to be a steady guide while clients set goals and try small, practical changes that fit their daily life.

How therapeutic approaches fit into online care

Client-centered therapy focuses on the person's needs and pace. It means the therapist listens closely and shapes sessions around what the person wants to work on. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect and teaches practical exercises to change patterns that cause distress. These approaches are useful for anxiety, depression, relationship stress, and coping with life changes.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Karina will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. She helps decide whether to emphasize CBT skills, mindfulness work, DBT strategies for emotion regulation, or trauma-focused EMDR elements based on the person's needs.

Confirm current session options before booking since formats are not listed here. Many people find online sessions helpful because they can fit therapy into a busy day, use shorter check-ins when needed, and avoid travel time. Others prefer planning sessions that align with work breaks or caregiving schedules. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises and skill practices for remote sessions so people can try tools between appointments.