Karina Aponte
I’m a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and Board-Approved Supervisor in Maryland with experience across outpatient community mental health, private practice, and university counseling settings. I especially enjoy working with young adults and women navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship and family challenges, identity and self-esteem concerns, and major life transitions. My approach to therapy is warm, conversational, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to therapy. I draw from relational and interpersonal approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, strengths-based interventions, and trauma-informed care to meet each client’s individual needs.
I take a warm, down-to-earth, and collaborative approach, creating a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients can explore challenges, gain insight, and develop practical strategies to feel more confident, balanced, and supported in their daily lives.
I believe clients are the experts on their own lives. My role is to offer support, curiosity, perspective, and practical tools while creating a space where you can better understand yourself, recognize patterns, and work toward changes that feel meaningful to you.
First session
Your first session is all about getting to know each other and creating a foundation for our work together. I’ll ask questions to better understand your story, what’s bringing you to therapy, and what you’d like to get out of our time. You don’t need to have everything figured out—many clients come in unsure of their exact goals, and that’s completely okay. We’ll work together to clarify what feels most important for you right now. My goal in a first session is to create a welcoming, nonjudgmental space where you feel comfortable being yourself. I move at your pace—you get to share what you’re ready to share, and I’ll be there to listen, reflect, and help you start identifying next steps. By the end, you’ll have a sense of how I work, and we’ll decide together if it feels like the right fit moving forward.
Strengths
I bring warmth, curiosity, humor, and a genuine, conversational style to therapy. I want clients to feel comfortable showing up as themselves, without feeling like they need to have the “right” thing to say or know exactly where to begin. I balance support and validation with helping clients recognize patterns, consider new perspectives, and make meaningful changes. I’m especially interested in understanding how past experiences, relationships, and family dynamics may be influencing what is happening in the present. At the same time, I believe therapy should be practical, so we also focus on tools and strategies clients can use outside of sessions. Above all, I tailor therapy to the person in front of me rather than expecting clients to fit into one particular approach.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who may look like they’re doing fine on the outside but internally feels anxious, overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of themselves. I especially enjoy working with young adults and women navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship and family challenges, identity and self-esteem concerns, and major life transitions. They may be figuring out life after college, adjusting to a new career, navigating changing friendships or relationships, working through complicated family dynamics, or adjusting to motherhood. Often, they feel stuck between where they are and where they thought they would be by now. My ideal client doesn’t need to come to therapy knowing exactly what they want to change. They’re willing to be curious about themselves, explore patterns and experiences that may be affecting them, and work toward feeling more confident and connected to the life they want to build.
Treatment methods
Integrative
I take an integrative approach to therapy, drawing primarily from interpersonal, relational, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) frameworks. I believe that no single method fits every client, so I tailor my approach to meet each person’s unique needs and goals. My work emphasizes the importance of a genuine, supportive therapeutic relationship as the foundation for change. Through an interpersonal and relational lens, I help clients deepen self-awareness, understand relationship patterns, and strengthen their connection to themselves and others. I also incorporate ACT and CBT techniques to support clients in identifying unhelpful thought patterns, managing difficult emotions, and taking meaningful action aligned with their values. This flexible and collaborative approach allows me to meet clients where they are—integrating practical tools with insight-oriented exploration to foster growth, self-compassion, and lasting change.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Top specialties
Other specialties
Serves
Licensed in
- MarylandLicense LC11459