Karen Joy, LMSW, CAADC, Therapist in Portage, Michigan

Karen Joy, LMSW, helps individuals in Michigan navigate life’s transitions, emotional challenges, and inner conflicts with warmth, insight, and clinical expertise. She provides individual and group therapy for teens, adults, and older adults, focusing on helping each person find clarity, resilience, and connection during difficult moments. Whether clients are struggling with mood symptoms, identity concerns, substance use, or the weight of past experiences, Karen offers a safe, inclusive space for healing and growth. Karen brings deep compassion and evidence-based skills to her work with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. She supports clients who may feel stuck in old patterns, overwhelmed by stress, or uncertain about the future. Using a blend of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques, Karen helps clients regulate emotion, shift unhelpful thinking, and reconnect to a sense of meaning. She has a special interest in working with the LGBTQ+ community and with women across the lifespan. Karen is particularly passionate about supporting individuals through later life transitions, midlife changes, and somatic or medically unexplained symptoms. She understands how these experiences can create grief, identity shifts, and emotional distress. Karen works collaboratively with clients to explore these complex transitions with acceptance, self-compassion, and a renewed sense of agency. Her background in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy supports this personalized and values-driven approach to care. Practicing since 1998, Karen believes that healing happens in relationship—with others, with nature, and with oneself. Outside of her clinical work, she finds joy in spending time with her dogs, walking in nature, swimming, practicing yoga, and connecting with family and friends. These passions inform her calm and grounded presence in therapy.