Karina Gruesz 
Clinical Therapist
(she/they)

Karina (she/they) is a queer identified social worker with a background in community mental health, complex trauma, adolescent development, harm reduction and family systems. They approach therapy from a collaborative and strengths-based lens, recognizing the capacity all humans possess to grow, heal, and change. They see their role as a therapist as providing a space free from judgment in which people can learn about themselves, foster confidence, build insight, and get “unstuck” when facing challenges in their lives.

 

Karina understands from both personal and professional experience that mental health struggles such as depression and anxiety are often deeply rooted in external barriers and challenges we face, from systemic oppression to fraught interpersonal relationships. For these reasons, Karina prefers to work from a Solution Focused and Narrative Therapy framework, supporting her clients in identifying and challenging internalized beliefs which no longer serve them and learning new ways of seeing which help them to recontextualize the problems in their lives and seek creative solutions.

 

While Karina has worked with a wide range of people of different ages and backgrounds, she specializes in working with ADHD and autistic individuals, the queer community, and LGBTQ+ families, as well as those experiencing challenges with substance use, borderline personality disorder, complex trauma, depression, and anxiety. They also have a special interest in fat liberation and working with people to challenge body image issues and recontextualize their relationships with food, exercise, and health.

 

Karina’s favorite quote is: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” - Angela Davis.