About Karen
A journey that became a path forward.
Personal experience, professional understanding, faith, and resilience come together in the story behind To Resilience and Beyond.
Who I Am
Personal experience, professional understanding, faith, and resilience.
I am a proud mother of three miracle babies who were born prematurely and together weighed enough for one baby. Along their journey through life, they have experienced periods in which their relationship with their mother was significantly affected and my presence in their lives was limited. The effects of those experiences may yet be discovered in the years ahead. Today, all three are amazing adults, each continuing to grow, experience life, and pave their own way toward fulfillment.
I am also a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), National Certified Counselor (NCC), Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP), Limited Licensed Psychologist (LLP), and co-author.
My personal and professional experiences have shaped the way I see resilience, relationships, identity, and the power of finding your voice.
My Journey
My story changed dramatically following a tumultuous divorce that eventually became what I consider parental alienation. During that time, I found myself navigating life without my children beside me.
The path I once knew vanished.
Through faith, determination, and resilience, I began creating a new path for myself. Along the way, I developed strengths that emerged through my experiences and discovered possibilities I could not see at the beginning of the journey.
In many ways, adversity became a silver lining—not because the experience itself was good, but because it contributed to the woman I have become: independent, tenacious, God-loving, and full of purpose and direction.
Writing became an important part of that process. Putting my experiences into words gave me an opportunity to reflect, make meaning of what I had lived through, and begin to visualize a life beyond the toxicity—a life with greater peace, mental clarity, purpose, and direction.
Resilience
Bouncing back, growing, and moving forward.
Resilience is about bouncing back after adversity and finding a way to move forward. Sometimes, moving forward means integrating what we have experienced into our story and allowing it to shape who we are becoming.
Life can take us down a path we never expected. Along that path, we may develop strengths, perspectives, and possibilities that might not have emerged otherwise.
For me, resilience became part of a transformation—rebuilding my life, rediscovering myself, and becoming the independent, tenacious, God-loving woman I am today.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back, grow through our experiences, and continue moving toward what lies beyond adversity.
Inspiration
Help is out there.
Children do not always have the words to explain what is happening to them. Sometimes they are caught in circumstances they cannot understand, much less describe. I want this space to offer hope for those children, for the parents who love them, and for families struggling through disconnection and loss.
You may recognize yourself—or someone you love—in one of the people in my chapter. You may be a parent grieving the loss of a relationship with your child. Or you may be an adult child who has been separated from a parent for years, wondering whether it is possible to reach out after so much time has passed.
Shame can silence us. Who wants to admit that they are losing a connection with their own child? And after years apart, who knows how to begin a conversation that feels almost impossible to have? Silence can leave people isolated when they most need understanding and support.
My hope is that by sharing my story, others will feel less alone and more able to use their own voices. Reconnection may not always be possible, and healing may look different for every family. But asking for help, finding support, or simply beginning to speak about what happened can be a beginning.
Help is out there. There can be growth after loss, connection after silence, and resilience beyond what we thought we could endure.
I will always be their mother, and I carry hope, faith, and love forward.