About Sara
Training and Education
“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.”
- C.G. Jung
The past and the future paradoxically and simultaneously inform where we've come from and where we're going. In my experience, sometimes we have to get lost to really find ourselves.
Looking back, I may have always been a therapist before answering the call to train professionally. As a child, I was curious about people, their stories, journies, nuances, and intricacies. I loved learning the mysteries of nature and humanity and have had a keen sense of the in-between individual and group dynamics we feel and sense but don't visually see.
I was born and raised in New Jersey, a place that, like most humans, is richly diverse, complex, beautiful and misunderstood. Only some genuinely get it, and that's finally okay with me.
I started my early career life in communications in New York City at Time Inc. Not long after, personal pains and losses helped me recognize I was on a misguided path. I felt confused and unsure of what it meant to trust myself, so I threw myself into service and entered the Peace Corps. Living and acclimating to the culture in Azerbaijan, a country I had never heard of, for two years helped me stretch beyond my upbringing, culture, and preconceived beliefs.
My Peace Corps experience fostered a deep appreciation for and ability to see beyond myself, my culture, and my judgments to understand others better, and is the core feature of my orientation as a therapist and human.
I moved to California over a decade ago, drawn to something beyond my awareness; I would later learn it was intuition. I appreciate the openness, expansive variety, and inclusivity that make the West beautiful. While we sometimes get it right and often get it wrong, we always strive to improve. This is the truth about every human's potential. I'm curious about humans, relationships, and helping what heals. There are many ways to get where you want to go, and I am honored to be with my clients on their way there.
I am currently a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor at a humanistic-oriented non-profit clinic that supports addiction medicine and mental health treatment—rooted in harm reduction, social justice, challenging stigma, and empowering clients to be more responsible for their choices.
During and after graduate school, I worked with adolescents and transitional-age youth in school settings.
I have a Marriage and Family Therapy License in California and have seen clients since 2015.
I obtained my Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from San Francisco State University and my Bachelor of Arts in Communication from American University.
While laws require school, practice hours, and tests for licensure to be a therapist, I believe my self-work and personal analysis expand my potential for how I show up in each moment for my clients. I am forever learning and am committed to ongoing training to deepen my knowledge and develop my techniques for my clients.
My Orientation
Psychotherapy and what works for you are highly personal: they require a match in chemistry and personality.
Many people get swept up thinking they need a specific type of therapy. Yet the evidence continuously shows that positive outcomes in treatment will always boil down to your relationship with your therapist: the connection quality. Quality psychotherapy requires safety, nonjudgment, acceptance, deep curiosity, and support. You need a therapist who truly gets you and is willing to examine all sides and facets that make you who you are.
My style is warm, deeply curious, and sometimes direct. I am focused on getting to know your inner world and the dynamics of your life and relationships that either support or inhibit growth. With precise, compassionate, and attuned listening, I can help you understand your core needs, longings, and fears that get in the way. Together, we can uncover beliefs and patterns that aren't serving you and reorient into a space of alignment so you can get on with living the life you’re meant to live.
I weave together various modalities that I tailor to each client’s needs. My psychodynamic orientation pulls from the cognitive, narrative, humanistic, harm-reduction, and multicultural lenses. I utilize parts work, mindfulness, and somatics and am available for psychedelic integration sessions.