NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS
How to contact Karla directly…
(302) 440-4418 or by email Karla Fleshman
For ACTIVE Clients access to Therapy Notes Client Portal
For EMDR Consultation – Click Here
For Institute for Creative Mindfulness Directory – Click Here
For EMDRIA Directory – Click Here
Upcoming Trainings/Presentations
- EMDR Therapy Training (VIRTUAL) Part I & Part II December 11-13, 2025 and January 22-24, 2026. Rev. Karla Fleshman is super excited at the opportunity to be a practicum facilitator with Michael Kuffel (they/them) of New Leaf Trauma Institute during their upcoming foundational EMDR Therapy training being offered virtually (Dec. 11-13, 2025/Jan 22-24, 2026). Michael is an EMDRIA approved foundational trainer and fellow author in Queering EMDR Therapy (https://queeringemdr.com/). If you work with a lot of clients who live with complex early childhood trauma and/or present with the dissociative subtype of PTSD, then this particular training is highly recommended. See register link HERE.
- Calling All Saviors: Follow The Moon. The 2026 Healing Together Conference will take place in Orlando, FL February 6 – 8, 2026. The Conference is available to attend both in person and online. To learn more about this amazing conference and see the full line-up of speakers, please click here.
- Parent/Teacher Evening Program entitled Supporting LGBTQ+ Students: Living, Loving, & Learning Environments. April 2026.
Philosophy of Practice
We believe that mental health care is a collaborative journey between therapist and client. Our practice is grounded in trauma-informed, identity-affirming approaches that recognize the impact of minority stress while celebrating the resilience and strength of the LGBTQ+ community. We commit to meeting each client where they are, honoring their lived experiences, and supporting them in achieving their mental health goals. We commit to meeting each consultee where they are, honoring their lived experiences ,and supporting them in achieving their personal and professional goals.
About My Therapeutic Style
Originally trained with an advanced generalist approach to social work practice with a specialization in health care, I have remained committed to working with each Perspn, System, and Family to find the therapeutic approach that best meets their personalized needs and helps them achieve their treatment goals. I have received specialized training in EMDR as a Certified Therapist. I hold an advanced certificate in dissociative studies for EMDR therapists through the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, and am a Consultant in Training with the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. I incorporate Person-Centered/Parts Work, Somatic Skills, Narrative Therapy, Spiritual Therapy, Trauma Conscious Yoga Method, Mindfulness-based CBT & Trauma Informed Care for both Adults and Adolescents. Additionally, I have extensive experience with compassion-focused and mindfulness practices that are especially helpful for persons experiencing heightened anxiety, grief, and/or dissociative experiences associated with trauma, life transitions, gender dysphoria, or other physical health-related challenges.
- I work well with people of all sexual orientations and gender identities (because typing out LGBTQIA+ doesn’t quite capture everyone).
- I work well with people who live with dissociative experiences.
- I work well with people who live with chronic pain, as well as those who choose to live while dying with a terminal condition.
- I work well with individuals or families who want to engage in the therapeutic journey with the goal of Transformation.
About My Professional Background
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 35 years of experience, as well as an Ordained Clergy who believes in journeying alongside a person and their chosen community to help them identify their potential, to heal from the past (if applicable), and to embrace the present with joy, seeking to live their best life.
My professional career path has led me through the devastation of AIDS in the early 90’s – first in pediatrics and then in adult medicine – when it was as if everyone I knew was dying. I came out to myself and others all at once when I immediately stepped into community activism with Act-Up Baltimore seeking organizational change to better serve the needs of those who were marginalized based upon their diagnosis, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic heritage through Chase Brexton Health Services as their Case Management Coordinator. At that time in the early 90’s, I was on the first Mayor’s Council in Baltimore for a new program called HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS).
Way back then, when I reflectively asked the question many years ago, “Where is God in the midst of suffering? I applied and attended Columbia Theological Seminary as the first person to ever come out on the admission application while trying to be let into the seminary where I focused my study upon the importance of healing touch particularly for those ostracized and marginalized by illness (HIV/AIDS) and Identity (LGBTQ+) in the pursuit of wholeness for mind, body, and spirit. Amazingly enough, the seminary approved my admission and paid for my education after I applied for a scholarship funded based on my HIV/AIDS work.
Before accepting a clinical position in Hospice Care in Delaware for four years (in residence, nursing home, and inpatient facility) providing end of life counseling to the person dying and their family, I was a solo pastor active in ministry in the church I started; and fully engaged social justice work to benefit the LGBTQ+ community for ten years. The early 2000s marked a shift in my focus on justice work, as I became more centered on serving transgender and gender-expansive individuals through organizing retreats within my church and being one of the first to offer spirituality programming at some of the first Transgender Wellness Conferences in Philadelphia. The need to continue to be mindful and intentional with naming risks and addressing intersectionality across the decades within and beyond the LGBTQ+ community is because the “Face of AIDS” and the communities most at risk has never shifted, but who gets “airplay”, attention, and greater access to services has changed. Some of our most vulnerable are within BIPOC, Transgender, and under 25 communities, which is one of the reasons my private group practice accepts insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, because culturally responsible mental health services for LGBTQ+ folx, folx living with HIV, folx living with Complex PTSD/Dissociative experiences deserve access to qualified and compassionate therapists.
I remain active in our many intersecting communities, offering training and workshops aimed at seeking positive social and community change for the LGBTQ+ community, especially our transtastic and queerific folx. I, along with members of my group practice, have provided training to various schools, medical/mental health practices, as well as community service providers, such as Delaware HIV Consortium, Housing Alliance of Delaware, New Castle County Libraries, Department of Health and Human Services of Delaware to name a few.
Today, I am equally inspired by and committed to supporting LGBTQ+ folx across the aging spectrum and the friends/family who love and support them. LGBTQ+ folx still face unique challenges, often experiencing increased anxiety and depression as they seek to maneuver through continued societal stigma and bullying. I welcome opportunities to meet with and provide training to organizations that wish to offer culturally sensitive and affirming support to LGBTQ+ folx.
Additionally, I welcome the team of Transitions Delaware LLC in providing individual, couples/poly-affirming, and family counseling to those who want to learn how to embody their authentic self/selves with confidence and compassion. Our practice prioritizes the lived experience of therapists and clients, and we especially center those who identify as queer, neurodivergent, disabled, people of the global majority, and/or living with dissociative experiences.
Specialties
- Anxiety
- Chronic Pain & Illness
- Depression
- Dissociative Systems/Plural
- Existential
- Grief & Loss
- LGBTQIA+
- Relational Trauma
- Religious Trauma
- Spirituality
Treatment Orientation
- Certified EMDR Therapist, Consultant in Training
- Parts Work
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
- Narrative
- Somatic Skills
- EFT
- Yoga/Energy Focus
- Person-Centered
- Spiritual Direction
- Supervision Services
- Compassion Focused
- Trauma Focused
Additional Web Address Listings:
Psychology Today – click HERE
Publications
“The Forgotten Parts of Me: A Clinician’s Journey Through Breast Cancer & Early Childhood Trauma” in Queering EMDR Therapy by editor Roshni Chabra, LMFT (Creative Mindfulness Media: 2025)
The Role of Dissociation in Surviving Severe, Systemic Bullying: A Reflective Narrative for EMDR Therapists (and Trauma-Responsive Clinicians Serving LGBTQ+ Folx) in Delaware Journal of Public Health, (2025) Volume 11: Issue 2, pp 74-79
“Who was Nex? Who is Nex.T?” in Delaware Journal of Public Health, (2025) Volume 11: Issue 2, pp 80-81
“Building Resilience, Reducing Risk: Four Pillars to Creating Safer, More Supportive Schools for LGBTQ+ Youth” in Delaware Journal of Public Health, (2019) Volume 5: Issue 3, pp. 46-52.
“Understanding and Dealing with Spiritual Violence: Preaching, Testifying, and Gandhi’s Satyagraha as Tools in the Queer Social Justice Movement” in Understanding and Dealing with Violence: A Multicultural Approach, pp.95-112 by editors Barbara C Wallace and Robert T Carter (Sage Publications: 2003)
Articles & Interviews Quoted In…
Examining policy protections for transgender and gender nonconforming studenst in Delaware Schools. By Rachel Sawicki. Originally Aired: May 31st 2024
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Letters from CAMP Rehoboth February 2 2024 issue, Rev. Karla is quoted in Love Yourself.
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Your Guide to the Best Online LGBTQ+ Counseling: The right LGBTQ+-affirming therapist will meet you where you are. They will understand, support, and guide you on the journey to becoming the person you want to be. Written by By Savannah Bacon Reviewed: September 29, 2022