Background & Population Served

Kara Kolpak Ed.S. LPC, PMH-C (pending), IMH-E I/RS (pending)

I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and have an array of expertise with varying age groups. I am a mom of 3 and still learning! It is busy and comes with sacrifices and challenges but fun and filled with opportunities to connect that many of us cannot slow down our lives to cue in on. I'll support and guide my clients with any 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. 

***I offer several specialized infant to early childhood services starting in the womb with expecting moms through the birthing process if they choose AND up until 12 months old!  (PENDING certification as a Perinatal Specialist (PMH-C) 

In addition to being an LPC I am an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant for a Pre-school initiative in my town!  I'm also pursuing my PMH-C to treat Perinatal Mental Health and 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. 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.

Starting in 2002 I started working with 12-18 yr old  out-of-state children, removed from their caregivers deemed unequipped to parent them. I have worked in the field of mental health for more than 20 years. For years I have been a clinician with an extensive background in treating and assessing substance use struggles and severe and prolonged mental illness’. I also supervise substance use programs for teens & adults and now my full time job is a Clinical Director with an impactful community parent/child treatment modality serving central & eastern CT.  Having THIS unique niche which is unique, my expertise covers caregiver substance abuse, infant & early childhood developmental play therapy approaches & trauma detection and perinatal mental health for pregnant and parenting mothers. In my full time work, my teams and I continue to learn how to stabilize parental substance use & establish safer home environments for children through training by Yale’s FBR MDO clinical consultants and mentors informed by CT-AIMH

 Pending Certifications 2025:

o    First Play® Therapy Practitioner

o    First Play® Kinesthetic storytelling for children 3-10yrs.\

o    PMH-C 

o    IMH-E I/RS (2026)