Meet Karen

My name is Karen Lanser. I earned a Master of Social Work degree and have been working in a private practice in my own community as a counsellor, therapist and integrative life coach.  I am the founder of Miracles! Your Center for Well-Being Inc., and am committed to providing a variety of services intended to support others in making peace with their pasts and finding the gifts in the people, circumstances and/or situations they might be blaming for their unhappiness.

I was an only child who grew up on welfare in a home that had been fractured by my father’s alcoholism and my mother’s prescription drug abuse, mental health issues, and physical disability. I ended up in foster care a few times and yet, through it all, somehow clung to my childhood dream of getting her PhD in Psychology and supporting others in overcoming the wounds of their childhoods.

It didn’t happen quite as I had envisioned! This dream was derailed for nearly a quarter century while I struggled to be the ‘perfect’ wife, mother, daughter, friend, volunteer and employee. I spent countless years of my life pleasing, perfecting, performing and proving myself. While it might have looked like I “had it all” from the outside, regardless of my achievements and accomplishments, I still felt empty on the inside. Despite my best efforts, I found myself calling a therapist rather than being a therapist!

Although I had acquired an impressive library of self help books, it was only after I discovered the writings of Debbie Ford and attended The Shadow Process that my life really turned around! Within the space of that profound support, I learned how to honor my own feelings and listen to my own heart. Amazingly, the more I focused on healing myself, the more my daughters, marriage and health began to thrive! I even resurrected my educational dreams and earned my graduate degree.

Most remarkably, however, the work founded by Debbie Ford provided me with the foundational tools that I needed to successfully bridge the gap between who I was and who I always wanted to be! I was so inspired by the shifts I made in my own life that I became a certified integrative life coach myself in 2002 and continue to be involved with The Ford Institute for Transformational Training (TFI). I am proud to be a Certified ‘Integrative Leader’ with TFI and am trained in a number of different models including:

As a recovering perfectionist and people – pleaser, I have found that my experiences of being the devoted wife and self-sacrificing mother have fostered an exceptional appreciation for other women who feel they are being “selfish” if they don’t put everyone else first. I believe I bring a powerful, compassionate and encouraging perspective to conversations related to primary relationship issues, mid-life concerns, social justice and spiritual well-being. Ultimately, I fervently believe that the joys in our lives are not determined by having the ‘right’ circumstances, but rather by having the ‘right’ perspective from which to interpret our circumstances.

In keeping with her childhood dreams, I remain relentlessly committed to inspiring and supporting others in savoring and enjoying the moments of life’s journey rather than merely enduring them! As part of my ongoing commitment, I have also been trained in two  of the most effective interventions for healing and processing trauma … EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy).

Please feel free to contact me at 1-403-317-1117 or via email at info.miraclesinc@gmail.com if you have any questions and/or would like to know more about making your own dreams a reality!