Dr. Karina

Dr. Karina Jungian depth psychologist, PhD, LPC. Soul excavator. My style of therapy is uniquely comfortable, creative, and grounding. I am a lover of nature and adventure.

I work at the intersection of trauma, story, and sacred rebellion—to help you unbury your fire and come home to your myth.🔥 My doctoral training is in Jungian depth psychology, and I am trained in sandtray therapy among various modalities. My goal is to provide a sanctuary where you can freely explore, dream, and discover who you authentically are. In this safe space, you will be gently encouraged to unveil your strengths, and to confidently present the “real you” to the world. I am especially gifted in working with teenagers and young adults, and I work incredibly well with individuals who may feel resistant to therapy. I can help you safely work through trauma, and I can assist you with confusion related to life changes & identity, working together to clear obstacles that may be in your path. Before becoming a psychologist I was a teacher, actor and theatre director. I was born in New York, and I lived in Portland, Oregon for 15 years before moving to Virginia. My passion is helping to cultivate transformation in individuals who may feel "stuck." I also work well with dreams, and helping you to process your dreams.

... If you have been looking for a creative counseling experience, with a therapist who thinks outside the box, you have found her. "If you listen closely, the wolf in its howling is always asking the most important question, not where is the next food, not where is the next fight, not where is the next dance? but -- Where is the soul?" ~ from "The Wolf's Eyelash," C.P. Estes, ©1970

Rest, in a world that glorifies exhaustion, is a sacred act of rebellion. When you stop performing productivity and simp...
10/12/2025

Rest, in a world that glorifies exhaustion, is a sacred act of rebellion. When you stop performing productivity and simply let your body soften, you’re refusing the collective trance that says our worth comes from output.

This is you remembering an older covenant—the one between the human heart and the rhythms of nature. To rest is to return to belonging. It’s to say: I will no longer sacrifice my aliveness on the altar of endless doing.🖤🌙

09/28/2025
I might be slightly giddy about this week’s lecture.🤓
09/22/2025

I might be slightly giddy about this week’s lecture.🤓

We often talk about cravings in pregnancy or athletic training, but rarely in post-traumatic nervous system recovery.Tra...
09/21/2025

We often talk about cravings in pregnancy or athletic training, but rarely in post-traumatic nervous system recovery.

Trauma reshapes stress hormones and digestion, and many survivors describe cravings that uniquely impact their internal regulation—possibly providing warmth, minerals, sweetness, or comfort. In my own experience with trauma and recovery, I’ve noticed that certain foods feel like nervous system “medicine,” and I have new staples that I never had in the past. It is truly fascinating!

I wonder: what foods feel/felt vital in your healing? What cravings carry/carried you through? No judgment whatsoever!!!❤️🏴‍☠️✊

We live in a culture of scapegoats and spectacle. Instead of doing the hard work of looking at our own contradictions, w...
09/19/2025

We live in a culture of scapegoats and spectacle. Instead of doing the hard work of looking at our own contradictions, we cast them onto someone else and call them the villain of the week, or constrastingly the idealized/the martyr. Demonization and idealization feel cleaner, safer, than self-reflection, but it’s really just shadow projection on a mass scale.

The antidote isn’t more purges, exiling, or martyrdom, it’s more courage: the courage to face the parts of ourselves we’d rather exile or project onto someone else. Depth psychology teaches that the shadow doesn’t vanish through denial. Only when it’s faced and integrated can it transform us. Until then, we’ll keep trading scapegoats and saints instead of finding our souls.

This reflection isn’t about any one person—it’s about larger cultural patterns seen through a depth psychological lens.

Dr. Karina McGovern Chace

From yesterday’s Fresh Check Day. From today’s heart.We keep talking about the danger of guns. And yes, they’re dangerou...
09/13/2025

From yesterday’s Fresh Check Day. From today’s heart.

We keep talking about the danger of guns. And yes, they’re dangerous. But the deeper danger—the one no one seems to notice—is the emotional state of humanity.

We live in a culture where grief is fabricated for the camera. Where newscasters cry without tears, where outrage is rehearsed for clicks, and where whole crowds can be moved by performance while forgetting what real pulse feels like.

I know what grief looks like. It’s messy. It’s trembling. It smears your makeup and chokes your voice. It doesn’t fit in a soundbite or a clean headline. And yet, the spectacle is consumed as if it were truth.

That disturbs me more than anything. Not because I’m “drowning in the spectacle”—I refuse to drown—but because the world is losing its compass. When people can no longer tell the difference between polish and pulse, between performance and presence, they can be manipulated into anything.

Yesterday I spent over three hours nonstop with more than 200 students at a su***de awareness event. They painted rocks, puzzle pieces, masks—each a fragment of something real. And I felt the cost in my body today. Because holding presence with that many souls is labor. It takes energy. It matters.

That’s the difference: truth costs something. Spectacle seeks currency.

The danger isn’t only violence. It’s the erosion of our ability to feel what is true, to sit with it, to carry it together. If we lose that, we’ve lost the pulse of humanity.



Dr. Karina🖤✊

One of my favorite events, put on by the SU counseling department and yours truly. Su***de awareness, prevention, commun...
09/12/2025

One of my favorite events, put on by the SU counseling department and yours truly. Su***de awareness, prevention, community.🌸

Yes. As therapists we sit in the trenches every day, witnessing human beings in their most vulnerable and courageous mom...
09/11/2025

Yes. As therapists we sit in the trenches every day, witnessing human beings in their most vulnerable and courageous moments. Some trenches are deeper than others, some days we cry, and other days we laugh together and find real joy. One of my main responsibilities is to keep my heart open so that I can continue to model and champion this for others. Truth be told, there are rainy days where my clients show up and model this for me.—Dr. Karina🔥

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Purcellville, VA

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