Karen Perlmutter, LISW-CP · Addiction Recovery Therapist & Educator
We were never meant to do this alone.
Sometimes in navigating either our own or our loved one’s addiction and mental health journey, we land in a place where we realize “I’m stuck. I’ve gotten as far as I know how to on my own.”
Partnership helps us see the big picture, the options we didn’t know we had, and learn the tools we need to get there.
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Not sure where to start?
When you've been in survival mode for a while, even choosing where to begin can feel like one more decision. So start small. My free 15-minute mini-session walks you through the predictable patterns that pull loving families off course, and the first step out.
Let's work together
Private counseling
Individual, couples, and family therapy in Mt. Pleasant, SC, for people building long-term recovery and the families rebuilding alongside them.
Empowering Families That Face Addiction
Family addiction support you can take at your own pace. It's a private, on-demand course for anyone who loves someone struggling with addiction.
Addiction never impacts just one person in a family
If you're a recovering substance abuser, you know how powerfully active addiction rearranged your priorities, your relationships, and your sense of who you were. Likewise, if you love someone who's struggling with addiction you know how their disease can gradually rearrange your life around the chaos of theirs. While it’s the same disease, substance abusers and their families experience it from two very different sides. Both sides deserve to recover from addiction’s impact.
I hold compassion for both sides, and when possible, I work to build a bridge between those two worlds–to help each side understand what the other is going through. You can't control someone else's recovery. You can choose how you respond and when you’re ready to heal.
"We need to bring back creativity... We need to bring back a scale of many shades of color between black and white." — Karen
Hi, I'm Karen.
I'm an addiction recovery therapist (LISW-CP) with nearly 20 years in hospitals, clinics, and private practice, working primarily with people in recovery and the families who love them.
I don't hand out scripts or one-size-fits-all guidelines. I bring curiosity, a bit of a mad-scientist vibe with my messy diagrams and a lot of vivid analogies to help you truly understand how addiction works.
You bring what matters to you and what you're ready for. Together, we find the next right step.
If you love someone who's struggling with addiction
Does any of this sound a little too familiar?
You've checked their location three times today because if they’re ok, you’re ok.
You can already tell whether they're using from the way they say "hello."
You think of yourself as a pretty stable friend and responsible person overall. But with them, you walk on eggshells and feel totally lost.
You've said "this is the last time" more times than you can count.
You've paid their rent, replaced their car, or called the attorney, hoping this would be their turning point.
You are not a fool, and you are not crazy. You've fallen into a pattern that almost every loving family falls into, and patterns can be understood.
Start with 15 minutes: The Co-Addiction Stew
In this free mini-session, I'll walk you through the four predictable ingredients that pull loving families into patterns they never imagined, and the first step out.
From families who've been there
