Karen Ellen Church, ASW

Registered Associate Social Worker #94040

Pronouns: she/her/hers

 
 

Clients/Groups/Communities I work with: Adults, couples, focusing on issues involving parenting, co-parenting, marriage, separation or divorce issues, domestic violence, child welfare. Current member of the Mental Health Liaison Committee of the Sonoma County Bar Association. 

Challenges & Obstacles I Work With: Communication, marital separation or divorce issues, parenting issues, recurring disagreements, co-parenting issues, trust, anxiety and depression, adjustment issues, attachment issues

Life Changes & Opportunities I Work With: Changes in marital status, co-parenting, individual self development, adjustment issues

Professional Style

Helping at a time of need to find what is right with a person, not what is wrong. Finding the hope for a better today and a better tomorrow. 

My style of therapy is a positive strength-based, solution focused approach. I work from the belief that we all have strengths, and occasionally we may need a person by our side, helping us to again realize and use these strengths. The aspect of therapy I love the most is finding not only an individual’s or family’s strengths but working together to revisit or renew the sense of hope. Hope is the light within, that can make each day and each tomorrow better. 


Trainings & Certifications

  • Domestic Violence in the Lives of Children 

  • Trained and certified to administer the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment 

  • Triple P Group Provider Training

  • Triple P Positive Parenting Provider Level 3 Primary Care                    

  • Triple P Teen Primary Care Provider Training                                               

  • Triple P Positive Parenting Provider Level 4 Standard Training 

  • Touchpoints Methods Training        

  • YWCA domestic violence Training

Interests

  • Solution focused therapy

  • Strength based therapy

  • Family Therapy

  • Individual or Family Therapy in the home

  • Tele-therapy

Background

  • Throughout career worked with adults, couples, and families

  • Specialized as a social worker in particularly difficult and high-risk cases 

  • Developed one-on-one interventions with parents and families to achieve parenting goals 

  • Utilized evidence-based parenting interventions

  • Qualified as an expert witness in parent education in the Sonoma County Juvenile Dependency Court

 

2000

Became a foster parent



2002

Bachelor of Arts Degree, Sociology/Psychology: Sonoma State University 

Started career working with parents and children



 

2019

Master of Social Work Degree: California State University, Long Beach 



2020

Associate Clinical Social Worker, ASW 94040, California

 
 

Gratitude

 
 

The loves of my life! Our children are now grown, and my husband and I have a larger family to celebrate with and other dogs in our lives to love and care for. The love is still the same. 


As I reflect, back, on the pandemic with all its tragedies, I personally have much to be grateful for. So much has changed for everyone. I realize now how much I took for granted seeing my loved ones, and now know so much more that each visit, each hug, is a gift. 



My Journey

 
 

My journey to becoming the therapist I am, has been long, and is a reflection of a lifetime of experiences. When I was a young parent, I realized my passion for wanting to understand and nurture others, human and animal. Parenthood led into foster parenting. My husband and I fostered 35 children over 10 years. During our fostering years we became parents again, adopting our fourth child through foster care. 

My enjoyment of working with children, especially those who are having a hard time in their lives, led to wanting to help parents. I was a parent educator for the next 12 years working with parents in the Child Welfare System, while working to obtain my Master of Social Work Degree (MSW). 

As an MSW, I have worked with adults, families, and older adults. My love of helping individuals in a caring and compassionate manner has shown me time after time that people are amazing and can do anything they set their minds to. 

My love of dogs has led to myself and my family partnering with several animal rescue agencies and shelters over the years. We have fostered an assortment of pups, some stayed with us, but most went on to other forever homes.