Meet McKenna
MARRIAGE + FAMILY THERAPIST
McKenna Carmen, MFT
Even meaningful life transitions can bring grief.
Becoming a parent, navigating infertility, adjusting to postpartum changes, moving through menopause, getting married, retiring, or becoming an empty nester can all reshape how we understand ourselves and our relationships. Even when a transition is wanted, it can bring uncertainty, loss, or a sense of disconnection from the person you once knew yourself to be. Some of these changes may look “positive” from the outside, which can make it especially difficult to make sense of complicated feelings. Gratitude can coexist with exhaustion. Hope can exist alongside grief. You can love your life and still feel that something has shifted.
I work with adults, couples, new parents, and families with adult children who are trying to better understand themselves, their relationships, and the systems that have shaped them. Many of my clients are navigating grief, reproductive mental health concerns, family-of-origin dynamics, relationship stress, or major life transitions. They may feel stuck in patterns they understand intellectually, but have difficulty changing. Together, we explore where those patterns come from, how they have been shaped by family and relationships, and what it might look like to respond differently without losing connection to yourself or the people you love.
I am especially drawn to supporting clients through reproductive and family life transitions, including infertility, postpartum changes, new parenthood, and menopause. These experiences can affect far more than mood. They can influence identity, body image, energy, libido, relationships, and sense of belonging. You may feel exhausted, angry, pressured, lonely, disconnected from your body, or confused by a lack of interest in things you used to enjoy. For couples, these transitions can show differences in how partners cope, communicate, and seek connection. Therapy can offer a space to slow down and understand what is happening beneath the conflict, distance, or disconnection.
“If you are moving through a transition, feeling disconnected in your relationship, grieving something others may not fully understand, or noticing old patterns you are ready to understand more clearly, therapy can be a place to slow down, make sense of what is happening, and begin practicing something different.”
I also offer relationship therapy and premarital counseling for couples who want to understand their patterns better before resentment or distance becomes harder to repair. Whether you find yourself having the same argument repeatedly, avoiding difficult conversations, becoming defensive, or feeling more like roommates than partners, I help couples identify the patterns that keep them stuck, practice repair, and develop new ways of relating. Premarital therapy can provide an opportunity to have intentional conversations about expectations, conflict resolution, intimacy, finances, family, and the division of responsibilities before these differences become sources of resentment.
My style and approach
My style is warm, direct, collaborative, and emotionally attuned. I believe therapy should feel both supportive and purposeful. I will be honest about what I notice while remaining curious about your experience and attentive to how my observations land with you. I also believe therapy should have room for humor, complexity, and things that are difficult to say elsewhere. Therapy with me is your time, and I want there to be room for what needs to be said. I also believe structure matters. If our work starts to become only a recap of the week, I may gently redirect us back to the patterns, goals, or emotions that brought you to therapy in the first place.
My clinical approach is systems-oriented, attachment-focused, and emotionally grounded. I draw from Adlerian Psychology, Contextual Family Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and attachment theory. At its core, this means I do not view you as a problem to be fixed. I am interested in helping you zoom out and understand the context around your experiences — the relationships and family system that shaped you, the roles you have learned to occupy, the beliefs you carry, your culture, and the experiences that have influenced how you understand yourself and others.
Therapy can become a place to develop greater self-compassion for yourself while also creating meaningful change. As we build awareness of longstanding patterns, you may begin to recognize the roots of self-criticism, understand your responses to conflict, identify when old wounds are being activated, and communicate your needs with greater clarity. Over time, many clients begin to feel more connected to themselves, more capable in their relationships, and more aware of what they need to feel a sense of belonging.
More about me
I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist with a Master of Arts in Couple and Family Therapy from Adler University, providing virtual therapy to clients throughout Illinois. I am certified in premarital counseling through Prepare-Enrich and have completed additional training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples.
I have always been drawn to understanding how the relationships, families, communities, and larger systems we are part of shape who we become, how we connect with others, and what we come to believe is possible for ourselves. This perspective continues to influence how I understand people and how I approach therapy.
Outside of the therapy room, I enjoy spending time with the people I love, traveling, and experimenting with new recipes.
Learn more about our approach to individual therapy, couples therapy, couples therapy while dating, and premarital counseling at Hearten Therapy.
