Karina Mercado, MS, LMFT
Karina is a compassionate and enthusiastic mental health professional with a strong belief in empowering families to build and sustain healthy relationships. Karina received her Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from California Lutheran University. Karina is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who provides mental health consultations and trainings for teachers and parents of Head Start Programs in the areas of social-emotional development, parenting, managing challenging behaviors, child abuse prevention and stress management, to name a few. Karina also provides individual reflective clinical supervision for MFT Interns.
Karina has worked with children of all ages utilizing a variety of evidenced based therapeutic models such as DIR Floortime, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Seeking Safety, a solution focused therapeutic approach that supports individuals with self-harming behaviors learn healthy coping skills. Karina is also trained in Child-Parent Psychotherapy, a psychoanalytic therapeutic approach which is geared towards improving the quality of the relationship between children and parents who are overcoming trauma. Karina is passionate about early intervention and believes in providing children with the opportunity to build a strong social-emotional foundation by supporting, educating and collaborating with parents and professionals who work with young children.