hi - I'm karen
Author. Speaker. Radical Resilience expert.
For most of my life, I couldn't figure out why I acted the way I did.
I would snap at someone I loved and feel terrible. Replay conversations for hours.
Say yes when I meant no.
And honestly thought something was wrong with me.
What I eventually learned: my reactions weren't random. They came from patterns my mind built to keep me safe —
that kept running long after I needed them.
Once I started seeing those patterns, everything began to make sense.
That's why I built The RETURN Way™. I needed a map out of the wreckage.
And once I found it, I couldn't keep it to myself.
Today I live my life out loud: writing, speaking and showing up for people who are ready to finally understand themselves.
about me
I've been married to my best friend and husband Barry for over 35 years.
We met when I was still figuring out who I was — and somehow, he stuck around for all of it.
The good years, the hard ones, the ones I'm not proud of, and the ones that finally made sense.
We have rescue animals, which tells you everything you need to know about us.
We believe in second chances.
We believe in showing up.
And we believe the ones who've been through the most have the most to give.
I didn't get here by having an easy life. I got here by refusing to stay stuck in one. Some of those years, I struggled with alcoholism. And Barry stayed anyway.
I once asked Barry how he was able to forgive me for some of what we'd gone through. He looked at me and said quietly,
"Because I know who you are."
I'm glad he did. I didn't. But I do now.
not ready for the book yet? Start here —
it's free.
Before
behind the scenes
My story didn't start with alcohol.
It started long before.
Depression. Anxiety. The feeling that everyone else got a manual for life that I never received. For fifteen years, I lost my bearings and yet all people could see was my weight and my bottle.
What they couldn't see was everything underneath — the depression, the anxiety, the shame. The feeling that everyone else got a manual for life that I never received.
The alcohol and the eating weren't the problem. They were the symptoms.
When I finally understood that, everything began to change. That's what radical resilience actually looks like.
And that's why I wrote it all down.
