Karlyn is a clinical psychologist, international speaker and trainer, and leading clinical advisor with a whole-hearted commitment to shifting paradigms and rewriting cultural narratives about mental health, healing, and the infinite possibilities available when we believe there is always more to the story.

When she was fresh out of graduate school and as green as they come, she stumbled into exactly what she didn’t know she was looking for and needed—a job in a small therapeutic community working with individuals diagnosed with multiple psychiatric disorders. Its unique philosophy of care was inspired by Native American principles of kinship, shared responsibility, and giving back. Witnessing the healing and restoration that unfolded inside this community of hope, in which each member was considered an integral part of the greater system, was nothing short of miraculous for a group otherwise deemed “chronic” and unlikely to change.

This remarkable, eye- and heart-opening experience upended everything she thought she knew about mental health and began shaping her professional career and personal life-path around a desire to create spaces for every human to have this opportunity. For twenty-five years, she’s helped create thriving therapeutic environments that have supported thousands of individuals and their families successfully build a life of self-management, health, and independence beyond the bounds of psychiatric diagnoses.

Today, she serves as the Chief Clinical Advisor at the Anew Treatment Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. She aims to carry on the fidelity of this deeply transformative model of individual and systemic change that promotes personal agency and interpersonal healing through belonging to a community that believes in individuals’ ability to thrive and live a purposeful life.

In her private outpatient practice, much of her clinical lens is grounded in attachment theory and she prefers to walk in the world of intergenerational transmission of stories—the tales, experiences, beliefs, and traditions passed along through systems. Leaning on narrative techniques to help others put voice to that which needs to be spoken and heard, she supports the revising of family roles and personal scripts to create a new life-storyline. She holds certifications in clinical trauma treatment as well as in Jungian psychotherapy, where active imagination, individuation, and harmonious integration reign supreme.

In 2021, she wrote the foreword for the collaborative project You Can’t Make This St*ry Up, centered on the power of synchronicity and healing through story. In 2022, she joined forces with fellow storytellers, messengers, and guides to launch Saved By Story, a one-of-a-kind publishing house that compassionately supports individual and collective healing through stories of transformation and hope. In March 2023, her debut novel, Feathers from the Fire, arrived earthside.

Her life’s journey also includes spending time in the comforting clime of San Diego with Kerry, her ever-entrepreneurial husband, and Katie, her Marvel Multiverse, crystal-cleansing, meal-making partner in crime. You might also find her seeking out the nearest source of live music, waxing philosophical with the dogs, trying to teach her koi fish the value of sharing, and reminding her glowering turtle that his fake scowl isn’t fooling anyone