Meet Kara
Kara J. Martone, MA, LPC, Ed.S
You may be the person everyone else relies on. The advocate. The caregiver. The leader. The entrepreneur. The one who holds things together, solves problems, and shows up for others. Yet beneath that competence, you may be carrying anxiety, burnout, grief, trauma, relationship challenges, questions about identity, or a growing sense that the life you’ve built no longer fully fits who you’re becoming.
Therapy offers an opportunity to slow down, make meaning of your experiences, and better understand the patterns shaping your life. Together, we can explore the stories you’ve inherited, the ones you’ve created, and the possibilities that emerge when those stories are examined with curiosity, honesty, and compassion.
I am a queer, neurodivergent therapist, educator, parent, writer, and activist. I conceptualize my role in therapy as a thought-partner and story-mapper. My work centers on helping clients trace the threads of their narratives and lived experiences, bringing unconscious patterns into awareness so they can move toward a more aligned and embodied way of being.
I specialize in working with therapists, attorneys, advocates, legal professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, activists, and others navigating the pressures of leadership, responsibility, visibility, and service. Many of my clients are thoughtful, self-aware people who have spent years caring for others, building careers, pursuing justice, or creating meaningful work while quietly carrying their own exhaustion, uncertainty, and pain.
What It’s Like to Work With Me
My style is collaborative, relational, and direct. I bring curiosity, compassion, humor, and a willingness to sit with complexity. I am less interested in asking, “What’s wrong with you?” and more interested in exploring, “What has helped you survive?”
Rather than focusing solely on symptom reduction, I work with clients to understand the patterns, protective strategies, beliefs, and stories that have shaped their lives. Together, we explore how those patterns developed, what purpose they have served, and whether they still align with the life you want to live.
I do not see myself as the expert on your life. Instead, I help create conditions where insight, healing, and meaningful change can emerge. My goal is to support you in developing a deeper relationship with yourself, your body, your values, your relationships, and your community.
My Approach
I integrate EMDR, somatic, existential, anti-racist, and narrative therapy modalities through a queer-informed and systems-aware lens. I believe our struggles do not exist in isolation. We are shaped by our histories, relationships, identities, communities, and the larger systems in which we live.
Therapy is not simply about reducing distress. It is also about expanding possibility, increasing self-understanding, and creating a life that feels more authentic, sustainable, and connected.
For clients who find meaning in symbolism, creativity, spirituality, astrology, tarot, dreams, or other frameworks of meaning-making, I welcome those perspectives as tools for reflection and insight. These practices are not required, but they can offer additional pathways for understanding ourselves and our experiences.
Beyond the Therapy Room
In addition to my clinical work, I am a writer, educator, and community builder. My essay, Transformation and Belonging, appears in the anthology Seahorses: Trans and Nonbinary Pregnancy (PM Press). Across both writing and therapy, I am interested in the ways people make meaning of their lives, challenge inherited narratives, deepen connection, and move toward greater authenticity, belonging, and liberation.
I believe healing is both personal and collective. Therapy can help us understand ourselves more fully, but it can also help us imagine new possibilities for how we want to live, connect, create, and belong.
I would be honored to support you in that process.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY, EMDR, SHADOW WORK INTEGRATION
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