Karen E.Christensen, CDP, has long kept abreast of the fast-moving and far-reaching changes in the addiction treatment field. As head of her own consulting practice, Recovery Connections, she has successfully worked with providers of chemical dependency treatment and mental health treatment throughout the United States, Canada and Bermuda.
Before becoming a consultant in 1995, Christensen worked as a family counselor, clinical supervisor, executive director and marketing director for several treatment programs in Washington State and other locations. She's also been an on-call counselor, independent patient-record reviewer and trainer.
Karen has a highly successful intervention business, Professional Recovery
Interventions, and a private therapy practice, Recovering Counseling and
Family Services.
Karen completed her Advanced Addiction Studies at Seattle University
and began her career in the addiction-treatment field in 1981. She
received further education at the University of Washington and Brigham
Young University.
Two years after entering the field, Christensen opened a women's treatment center on the island of Maui in Hawaii. After returning to Washington State, she opened and managed a treatment center at Walla Walla General Hospital.
She has been the director of marketing at Viewpoint Recovery Center in Burien, WA, and at Providence Recovery Program in Everett, WA.
Karen is past president of the Advisory Committee of Washington State's Chemical Dependency Professionals for six years and has been the chair of several national conferences, including the Employee Assistance Professionals, the National Treatment Consortium and the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.
Christensen has been a member of the Employee Assistance Professions Association since early 1980s and chaired its national conference in 1995.
“I love working with newly recovering individuals and their families,” she says. “It's been my passion for almost 30 years, and I believe it always will be as long as I can get out of bed and go to work.”
