The bad news: Life won’t stop, and despite being the most self-aware person you know, you can’t escape your own brain.
The good news: you don’t have to keep problem-solving your mental health on your own.
I help empathetic overthinkers find calm in the chaos of anxiety, grief, and/or transitions.
Wondering if I can help you?
My clients are caring people who are overwhelmed by what’s happening in the world but also by the impossibility of processing all of it. They are smart and competent folks, used to solving problems and having their shit together (or at least that’s how others see them), but they’ve experienced so much change or loss that they haven’t been able to take a breath, let alone acknowledge everything they’re carrying around.
My clients are the ones who can’t afford to fall apart because everyone else in their life needs them to keep it together.
They’ve done their research, they’ve read the books or listened to the podcasts, they’ve thought everything through repeatedly, but they still feel stuck - no one taught them how to handle this, and they’re so tired of figuring everything out on their own. They feel like anxiety and/or guilt are running their lives, and it’s dragging them down while keeping them spiraling.
Things aren’t working in a role or relationship or religion, but getting out or changing it feels impossible. Grief is so exhausting - they’re doing their best, but they can feel themselves fragmenting apart behind the scenes. They’re tired of performing the self that others want.
Is this sounding familiar?
My clients are the caretakers, the “fixers," and the leaders, who secretly wish someone could listen to and care for them the way they do for others.
You want to feel like you understand your own brain. You want to feel calm even in the midst of change and loss. You wish you could feel clear and confident about who you are and where you are going, and you want to be able to care for your people and do your work in a way that feels authentic and energizing and sustainable. I provide a safe and supportive space to say the angry things, the scary things, the weird or dark things - a space to be honest with unfiltered thoughts.
As a highly sensitive person, an eldest daughter, and a lifelong overachiever, I know what it is like to feel chaos on the inside and project competence on the outside. I know what it is like to be ready to burn it all down but terrified of the pain of change. I love helping neurodivergent people of all kinds to work WITH their spicy/magical brains instead of against them. I am unapologetically affirming of LGBTQIA+ folks. I strive for a decolonized therapeutic practice and incorporate attachment science, interpersonal neurobiology, and parts work in therapy.
I’m Karen Chambless, a licensed professional counselor.
I provide mental health counseling services in person in Chattanooga & virtually for Tennessee residents, for individuals age 18 and up.
I do my best work with: neurodivergent folks (including Highly Sensitive People), former gifted kids and other overachievers, deep processors and feelers, those who identify with “eldest daughter syndrome,” millennials/Gen Z, individuals who grew up religious but have walked away from those beliefs/communities in some way and/or deconstructed their faith, and creatives/entrepreneurs with one or more marginalized identities.
In terms of mental health concerns, I help folks with anxiety, grief/loss, trauma, codependency, communication & boundaries, and living with autism/ADHD.
My Services
-
Therapy for Anxiety
Whether it’s showing up as worry, obsessive thoughts, irritation, restlessness, panic, or dread, I can help you develop additional coping skills and find relief and freedom from feeling trapped inside your head. Anxiety is more normal than people realize. We will use a trauma-informed and neurodivergence-affirming lens as we explore what connections may be present to events in the past and work WITH your brain rather than against it.
-
Therapy for Grief
Feeling sad and/or angry a lot? It might be grief! I can hold space for despair, rage, numbness, bitterness, and all the other experiences that come along with grief. Whether it’s a loss in the past (which could be a month or 50 years ago), an ongoing experience with loss woven in, or in anticipation of a future grief event, it’s welcome in my therapy office. No platitudes or cliches here, just space to be messy and authentic because that’s how grief is.
-
Therapy for Life Changes/Transitions
Maybe you’ve received a diagnosis of ADHD or Autism, or you’re leaving/have left a job, a relationship, or a church. Maybe you’re having a quarter-life crisis, a mid-life crisis, or just an existential crisis. I create a safe and stabilizing space to process all the chaos that comes with life changes, whether they’re good, bad, or (most likely) complicated. This is an affirming place to be questioning, deconstructing, deconverting, and/or shouting into the void.
John O’Donohue wrote, “Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging.”
I will do everything I can to make our therapeutic relationship feel like a home, where you can be seen and understood and appreciated in all your complexity.
You are the expert on your own life.
