Karina holds a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from The Family Institute at Northwestern University, where she worked with individuals, couples, and families in all walks of their healing journey. Karina sits with her clients through their highs and lows and helps them discover the tools they have been searching for within themselves. Prior to becoming a therapist, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and has held roles in data analytics and business development, which influences her understanding of the relationship with one’s career.

Karina builds meaningful relationships with her clients with deep curiosity and vulnerability, so they feel heard and accepted. She conceptualizes problems being embedded into patterns, and she works in a humanistic way to help clients grow into more adaptive patterns by empowering them and using empirically informed methods. She takes a culturally humble lens, understanding how systemic forces impact these patterns. Her methods include acceptance, parts work, emotion-focused, and mindfulness. She has experience with individuals struggling with self-esteem in their careers, couples finding work-life balance, POC experiences in the workforce, parent-child/parent-adult child relationships, parenting, and the second/third-generation experience. In each of these experiences, her priority has been to create a safe, warm environment to foster personal growth and self-empathy through collaboration in the therapy room.

Outside of therapy, you might find Karina eating Puerto Rican or Greek food with her family and chihuahua, Lola. She enjoys combining her experience in tech and her passion for mental wellness with her creative hobbies by making related digital art and video games.