Karen Sturch, BACP

Karen Sturch is a BACP counsellor with 19 years of experience offering practical support for people facing stress, anxiety, depression and relationship worries. She helps with grief, trauma, addictions and parenting strains, and works with clients on issues like self-esteem, career decisions and coping with life changes.

Karen sees each person as the expert on their own life. She focuses on strengths and simple strategies that people can use between sessions. Her style is straightforward and supportive, aiming to make difficult problems feel more manageable.

She uses approaches drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy and solution-focused therapy. That means sessions often look at patterns of thinking and behaviour, while also identifying small steps that bring fast, noticeable change. Conversations are goal-oriented and grounded in everyday life.

Karen has particular experience with attachment worries, blended family issues and long-term pain or illness. She also supports people dealing with domestic violence, separation, guilt and shame, and the emotional strain common to first responders.

People meet her for short-term, practical work or for deeper, longer-term change. Sessions can include exploring thoughts, trying new ways of coping and setting realistic goals. She aims to leave people with clear tools they can use after therapy ends.

How Karen’s approaches work online

Karen uses cognitive behavioural therapy and solution-focused therapy in online work. Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts and behaviours keep problems going and teaches practical ways to shift them. It can help with anxiety, panic, low mood and sleep problems.

Solution-focused therapy concentrates on small, achievable steps and on what is already working. It is useful when people want quick tools to move forward and build confidence without lengthy exploration of the past.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Karen will discuss goals and preferences and then choose or blend methods with the client. This collaborative process helps tailor sessions to what the person wants to change and how they prefer to work.

Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text messaging to make counselling more flexible. Video calls are useful when visual connection matters, phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier on the go, live chat suits quick check-ins, and messaging lets people reflect between replies. These options help people fit therapy around work, family and other commitments.