Background & Population Served
Kara Kolpak Ed.S. LPC, PMH-C, IMH-E I/RS (pending)
Hi! I have an array of expertise with varying age groups, am a mom of 3 and still learning! It is busy and comes with sacrifices and challenges but fun and full of opportunities to connect that many of us cannot slow down our lives to cue in on. I support clients with many needs from perinatal depression or anxiety struggles, bonding with your baby, learning baby cues, or making connections with your older child using several interventions from somatic storytelling, music, play therapy as well as trauma assessment and treatment.
In addition to being a PMH-C & LPC I am an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant for a Pre-school initiative in my town! I treat Perinatal and Postpartum Mental Health and am a Certified First Play® Therapy Practitioner in CT which focuses on the mind/body attachment between parent and child incorporating somatic touch and infant massage with their caregiver for infants to 3 years old. First Play® was founded by Dr. Janet Courtney PhD. We use Calm, Relax & Connect with your infant to help co-regulate caregiver with child. ****Foster care, adoption, reunification, other developmental stress, trauma and potential autism related disorders are just some situations First Play Therapy supports children regaining traction and getting back on developmental track. Increased attunement with caregiver aids in learning how to self-regulate, leading to better temperament, sleep, digestion, behavior, appetite, expressions of joy, and a more secure child.
In 2002 I started working with 12-18 yr old out-of-state children, removed from their caregivers who were 'deemed' unequipped to parent them. I have worked in the field of mental health for more than 20 years as a clinician with an extensive background in treating and assessing substance use struggles and severe and prolonged mental illness’ in teens and adults. I was then a Clinical Director for a family based substance use program with an impactful community parent/child treatment modality serving central & eastern CT. We stabilized parental substance use & established safer home environments for children through training by Yale’s FBR MDO clinical consultants and mentors from CT-AIMH. Having a niche which is unique, my expertise covers infant & early childhood developmental play therapy approaches & trauma detection and perinatal mental health for pregnant and parenting mothers.
Advanced Certifications:
o First Play® Therapy Practitioner
o PMH-C
o First Play® Kinesthetic storytelling for children 3-10yrs.(pending 2026)
o IMH-E I/RS (pending 2026)
