Unstoppable French Broads Brunch Member Clinical Psychologist Dr. Rhonda Karg: Warrior for Mental Health
By Rosa Linda Fallon and Meg Hale Brunton
Clinical Psychologist and researcher, Dr. Rhonda Karg, has fought her way to where she is but loves the warrior spirit that it has instilled in her. “I’ve basically got a black belt in coping skills,” she says, laughing. “I’ve had to be a warrior in my life. I just kept fighting and thank God I did! Believe it or not, I do feel like the struggles that I’ve had make me a much better person.”
Originally from Hialeah, Florida, Rhonda was a single mother, living completely on her own at seventeen. “I would not wish single-parenthood or teen parenthood on anybody,” she says. “It was really hard. I raised my son single-handedly. I put myself through school.” She relied heavily on scholarships, grants and other programs to help single parents get through school, of which she says many moms may not be aware of. Today, one of Rhonda’s hopes as a psychologist is to encourage single moms to never give up on themselves, and to know they have the power to achieve their dreams.
In 2002, Rhonda earned her degree in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University. “I wanted so desperately to be a Clinical Psychologist. It was a very hard road, but it was the only thing I could be,” she explains. “I’m just fascinated by human behavior, psychopathology and the different ways that it could prevent itself. My work is so exciting that I literally wake up every morning, excited to work. That is no exaggeration.”
To gain more experience as a psychologist, Rhonda has been volunteering her time since she was 23. When she was still a student, she worked at hospitals and even at a super-maximum security men’s prison. Rhonda professes to be undaunted by situations fraught with conflict, or even danger. She even plans her vacations in environments that could potentially be life-threatening, such as seeking out the Kodiak bears in Alaska and exploring the remote jungles of Costa Rica. “For better, or worse, I kind of like adventure,” she says. “I feel awestruck just by the amount of strength that I’ve been able to walk through so many traumatic, freaky, scary situations.”
Thriving on thrills and priding herself on her survival skills has given Rhonda a unique attitude both in her professional and personal life. “I kind of have a different relationship with trauma – my own personal and other peoples’ trauma,” she explains. “Trauma changes our DNA. And I definitely identify with a warrior. Because of that, for better or for worse, I find myself in situations where I need to be. I’m not saying that I consciously seek out conflict, because I don’t. But I do have to admit that I kind of wake up each morning with this attitude of whatever you’ve got for me today, life, I’m going to kick your ass.”
In January 2015, Rhonda started her own private practice in Asheville, New Leaf Psychotherapy, where she sees about 25-40 patients each week. “My goal is to really help people get better, feel better and live their lives as quickly as possible,” she says of her practice, which she refers to as solution-focused. “I just feel very fortunate that I get to witness the miracles that unfold in the lives of the patients that I serve.” In addition to that, she is a researcher and consultant for RTI International, and she develops instruments to assess psychiatric illness for Columbia University, through which she has co-authored structured clinical interviews for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV).
Rhonda is also host of her own podcast, “Help Me, Rhonda with Dr. Rhonda Karg,” which can be found on Spotify, Buzzsprout and other podcast apps. She started the podcast partially in an effort to make mental health support free and more accessible to people, but says that a lot of her patients watch her YouTube channel to remind them of the skills they have learned while working with her. She says that, despite how much she works, she never runs out of energy to put towards the podcast. “I love what I do; it doesn’t feel like work,” she says. “It is my purpose and my meaning.”
Rhonda always finds a way to make room for fun in her life. She spends a lot of time with her now-grown son and grandson. She also continues to do charity work, including her work with the Unstoppable French Broads Brunch, an inclusive group to all women, trans women, non binary folk, and gender fluid individuals in the Asheville and WNC community.
She feels that a lot of people, especially women, have difficulty making themselves a priority in their own lives. “Self-care is so important, and holding space for our feelings, because throughout the day we’re so busy that we just push feelings down,” Rhonda explains, adding that empowering women to take care of themselves is one of the central focuses of her practice, and has been since 2003, when she began working with a talented group of women that organized interventions for sex-workers regarding: substance abuse prevention, HIV prevention, and domestic violence prevention. Since then, Rhonda feels her work has continued to be women-focused. “I know that it’s not popular with everyone for [women] to put our health and wellness first, but it is absolutely essential to living a good life. Nobody is more important than you – no one!”
Rhonda advocates taking a day to pamper yourself, be luxurious, or even just lazy every once in a while. She also recommends doing a five-minute daily emotion meditation, to let out all the feelings that you don’t have time to fully process during your day. Rhonda says research done by Duke University has found that these meditation sessions are excellent ways to release serotonin in the brain.
Rhonda shares that she is continually inspired by those who have experienced so much tragedy, loss and trauma, yet still manage to keep pressing on. This triumph is what propels her in her everyday work-life, and in her own personal life. “It’s inspiring to see people that have been through so much tragedy and yet they continue to keep getting up and fighting,” she says. “That is one of the most beautiful things that you can see, and I get to see it every day.”
For more information on New Leaf Psychotherapy and Dr. Rhonda Karg, visit her website: www.rhondakarg.com