Meet Karen
I have spent my career working inside some of the most difficult situations people face.
My job is to help them move through it without creating damage that outlasts the conflict itself.
About Karen
For more than 20 years, I have worked inside high-conflict environments, leading organizational transformation, coaching leadership teams, mediating difficult situations, and helping people navigate relationships under pressure. Across workplaces, leadership teams, families, and major life transitions, I saw the same pattern repeat itself: people stop solving the problem and start reacting to each other instead. Communication breaks down. Trust erodes. The damage spreads far beyond the original issue.
My professional path started in theater and movement, where I earned a BA in Media and Theater Arts from Montana State University. A Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship brought me to London, where I completed graduate training as a Certified Drama and Movement Therapist through the Sesame Institute at the Central School of Speech and Drama. That pivot, from performance to transforming relationships, shaped everything that followed.
I returned to the United States and spent five years as the assistant director of Camp Mak-A-Dream designing and leading retreats for children and young adults diagnosed with cancer. That work led to my next professional stepping stone working in the field of organizational psychology for Providence Services, the largest healthcare system in the Northwest. It was there that I developed my foundation in workplace culture, employee engagement, and leadership. I have been supporting efforts in conflict management, communication, and human behavior ever since.
Today I work with individuals, families, leadership teams, and organizations navigating high-stakes transitions. My book, The Good Divorce: How to End Your Marriage Without Ending Your Family, applies this work to one of the most emotionally charged transitions a family can go through.
Work with MeAbout the Work
Most people are never taught how to move through high-stakes transitions, communication breakdowns, or conflict in a productive way. Under pressure, people stop focusing on the actual problem and start reacting to each other instead. Conversations become defensive, trust erodes, and decisions get made emotionally rather than strategically.
My work interrupts that pattern. I help people see the situation more clearly, communicate more intentionally, and move through conflict in ways that protect the relationships, teams, families, and systems they still have to function after the conflict ends.
My clients are often highly capable and successful in other areas of life, but find themselves stuck inside patterns that are reactive, emotionally charged, and no longer productive. Some are navigating divorce or co-parenting. Others are leading teams through organizational change, working through workplace tension, or trying to move a relationship forward that has become too charged to manage on their own.
What connects them is the recognition that something about the current approach is not working, and the need for a clearer way to move through it.
I work with clients as a divorce consultant, mediator, facilitator, and speaker. I have worked inside organizations ranging from small businesses and nonprofits to government agencies and corporate leadership teams.
View All ServicesProfessional Credentials
I hold advanced credentials in mediation, coaching, divorce, and facilitation.
Everything will be okay in the end.
If it’s not okay,
It’s not the end.
– Fernando Sabino
testimonials
Karen – your energy and light is always a pleasure to behold! thank you for continuing to inspire others to be their best!
— Jacky T.
Development Director
Leading International Non-Profit
Design & Facilitate Annual Staff Retreat
Thank you for your insightful, thought-provoking, and encouraging message. We appreciate you working with us during our last minute changes, and for your willingness to speak truth into our lives.
— Wyoming Child Support Association
Karen has a rare ability to meet clients where they are and guide them to a set of outcomes that reflect their true selves, rather than feed them platitudes about what they think they need. As a result, I could make decisions aligned with my own values rather than act as a puzzle piece to complete someone else’s vision that I no longer shared.
— Malcolm R.
Career Transition Coaching
I can’t believe how quickly Karen put me at ease. She is a very easy person to trust. I always feel safe when I am talking with her.
— Carl P.
Participant, Team Mediation
I have had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of organizations
including small and large businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.
Every difficult situation starts moving when someone decides to approach it differently.
When you’re ready to sit on the same side, Karen is here to help.
