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Karla Magnan
About
Hello and welcome! I am so glad you're here. My name is Karla Bonkowski Magnan and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 26 years in private practice, and a Certified Trauma Treatment Professional. I have expertise in the neurophysiology of cPTSD, Attachment, Divorce, custody evaluations, substance use. I've worked with clients across the lifespan, children/adolescents and their caretakers, as well as individual and family clients.
I am very passionate about cultivating Your Voice... so many of us have felt powerless and alone, and my work with you will leave you with clarity of your own history, your sense of self and areas of meaning and purpose in your life.
Healing from big T Trauma is a process, and not a goal; it pervades all settings of our lives. Dealing with issues of Neurodivergency can be Traumatic in and of themselves...my esoteric approach uses all traditional models as appropriate, as well as mindfulness and somatic (body) work. I have a rich history of teaching classical yoga and meditation over the past 20 years, and the skills learned through these approaches are often the most helpful in stabilizing a traumatized and neurodivergent nervous system.
My motivation for working with adults on the spectrum stems from my knowledge that "normalcy" is a vague and discriminatory concept; truthfully, each individual has her own concept of what is normal, what is accepted.
Each human is worthy, each has strengths and challenges and unique ways of processing and functioning in the world. I believe this so strongly, from personal experience as the mom of a neurodivergent young adult son, ASD and ADHD.
Those who judge our neurodivergent children and adults are, in my opinion, too rigid and lazy to figure out how They Themselves must adapt to understand the neurodivergent....the neurodivergent individuals of the world have been forced to adapt to general standards of normalcy, often with horrendous results.
If we endeavor to understand these clients as whole individuals with value, who show differences from our own thinking and behavior, and we use curiosity and compassion as our baseline approaches, we find that neurodivergent individuals add a richness and robustness to the entire human experience.
Social justice and human dignity go very well together, and I look forward to working with you to find these in your own life.
I utilize strength-based and affirming appproaches to ensure each client has a safe place to explore her place in the world. By intently listening to my clients with curiosity and compassion, in their words and emotions, I allow each client to teach me what she needs, how she feels, what is important; then I draw upon the clients' strengths and unique qualities, traits and talents to build an ever-evolving life of self-acceptance, self-love, and respect for humanity.
