I work great with...
- Individuals looking to navigate life transitions and challenges as their authentic and genuine selves.
- Individuals looking for a deeper understanding of their relationships: romantic, family, friendship, roommate, and more.
- Clients who want to cultivate healthy dependence in their closest relationships.
- Parents ready to learn how their family’s generational parenting patterns inform their relationship with themselves and their kids and develop new, effective parenting methods.
- Foster and adoptive families exploring trauma-informed parenting and working to identify and meet the needs of all family members.
Style & Approach
I believe counseling needs to feel safe and I really want to create a counseling experience that feels comfortable for you to process, heal, and grow. For me, empathy, unconditional acceptance, and compassionate curiosity are my natural way of being with you, as a client, and the counseling experience is free of judgment and assumptions. My therapeutic relationship with you is cultivated through mutual trust and nurtured by authenticity. My personal and professional background in teaching, working with families, and exploring my own creativity offers me a unique perspective on your needs, your relationships, and how I can help you cultivate your authentic self.
Some of the approaches I Use...
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
- Attachment-Needs Exploration
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Client-Centered Care
- Resiliency-Focused Techniques
- Family Systems Techniques
- Trust-Based Relational Intervention Techniques
Fun Facts
The best Saturday afternoon is spent with my husband and our three teenagers.
Self-care for me is sitting in a hammock with a book or having friends over to tell stories, laugh, and share delicious snacks.
For me, creativity is picking up my camera and taking portraits. I consider it a profound privilege to connect with someone when I'm behind the camera and can capture another person's essence, beauty, resiliency, and story.
My favorite outdoor activity is listening to and identifying bird calls. It helps me to feel connected and fully present when I'm in nature.
My favorite animals are sharks because they are jawesome and fintastic. So, I celebrate Shark Week by sending out cards and surprising my loved ones with gifts that I call "shark attacks."
Education
M.A. Counseling, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX – 2023 (Anticipated)
M.A. Science Education, City College, New York, NY – 2008
B.A. Environmental Science and Policy, Hood College, Frederick, MD – 2006
Professional Experience
- Worked with kids and families for almost twenty years.
- Completed TBRI Practitioner training with TCU’s Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development.
- Served as a licensed trauma-informed foster home for children in crisis.
- Mentored and trained other foster and adoptive families.
- Specialized in preschool and family photography.
- Taught middle school science in Bronx, NY.
Sara is not accepting new counseling clients at this time.
Janice