Hi, I’m Karly (they/she),
and I’m glad you’re here.

I’ve spent most of life trying to make meaning of pain, both my own and others. It wasn’t until the past few years that my relationship with pain has began to shift. These days, I’m more interested in learning how to find joy and return to love while co-existing with pain. My physical body and relationship with illness has been the initiation site for this change in perspective.

My work sits at the intersections of identity, psychology, disability, justice work, spirituality, and creative expression.

I once believed these were all separate, but I now see the importance of the web they form. They all get to the heart of the question I’ve never been able to put down:

What does it mean to be human in a world and body that is constantly in a state of change?

I’m a queer, Autistic and ADHD therapist, writer, intuitive, activist, and educator living with chronic illness and complex trauma. These lived experiences shape the work I do. I’ve spent most of my life living in the South and have a deep reverence for this land. Nature is a big part of my life and how I experience connection. The waters of Florida’s Gulf Coast and the forests of North Carolina hold significant importance in my life.

Professionally, I’ve spent the past 15 years working in mental health in a variety of roles, including private practice, child welfare, school social work, and community mental health. I currently own and operate my private practice, Rooted Return, where I support queer, trans, disabled, and neurodivergent folks through transitions and change.

I’ve also worked as an adjunct professor at Florida Southwestern State College and as a training coordinator for a nonprofit. I’ve presented at conferences on disability justice, neurodivergence, and mental health from both clinical and personal perspectives. More recently, my work has led me to collaborate with interfaith communities around what repair can look like at both the institutional and interpersonal levels of religious harm. I’m particularly passionate about helping people reconstruct what spirituality means for them after experiencing spiritual injury within oppressive systems that perpetuate transphobia, homophobia, racism, white supremacy, and misogyny.

I’m fascinated by the mirrored relationship between our inner and outer worlds.

I believe that healing isn’t something we do only for ourselves, but an act that contributes to the larger work of collective liberation. After decades as a spiritual seeker in many forms, I’ve come to understand justice work as spiritual work. Like most aspects of my life, my spiritual practice is eclectic, with roots in animism, Gnosticism, ancestor work, mythology, and mysticism.

I live in North Carolina with my wife, our dog Josie, and our two feisty felines, Princess Pow Pow and Nimbus. I enjoy writing, getting lost in contemplation, music, and food. My guilty pleasures include ’90s country, reality TV, and being a helicopter parent to my cats.