values + identity
I'm Sarah. I'm a lesbian and genderqueer person based in Los Angeles, California. As your therapist, I am myself. I lean very curious, sometimes funny (jury's still out), open-hearted, gentle, and expressive. I trust and honor you as the expert of your lived experience. When I am not seeing folks here, I work in addiction and recovery - so I am wildly familiar with advocacy, systems of power, deep grief, loss, and trauma.
To me, therapy is political. I move through the world with the unearned privilege of being cis-presenting and white, and I live in conscious refusal of patriarchy as a queer and lesbian-identified person. It is at this intersection that I choose to orient my life and practice toward unsettling the colonial and patriarchal systems that uphold my privilege. The process of decolonizing myself, my work, and the field of psychotherapy is central to my practice and ethics and is always growing, evolving, and teaching me. I am inspired by the work of adrienne marie brown, Audre Lorde, and Leslie Feinberg.
Some of the core themes I’ve grappled with in my own life include: religious trauma and deconstruction, sexuality, gender dysphoria, grief, loneliness, depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, codependency and attachment wounds, shame, and a pervasive sense of not being enough. When I’m not in the therapist’s seat, I love to surf, read, play guitar, cook, collect records, be in community, and watch as many Bravo reality tv shows as humanly possible.
i work from a gestalt and somatic lens
what is gestalt therapy?
Gestalt therapy is rooted in building awareness of yourself in the present moment. Rather than only talking about your story, we also pay attention to what’s happening right here, right now — your sensations, emotions, impulses, and thoughts as they emerge in the room. Through deepening awareness, we begin to notice the ways you may have learned to disconnect from yourself, stay small, overadapt, or move through the world in ways shaped by past experiences.
This approach also integrates parts work and Internal Family Systems (IFS)-inspired exploration. Together, we notice and engage with the many different parts of you - the parts that learned to protect you, the ones carrying pain or shame, and the parts that may have been pushed aside in order to survive. Rather than trying to “fix” these parts, we work toward understanding them with curiosity and compassion.
At its core, Gestalt therapy is deeply connected to agency, authenticity, and choice. As awareness grows, many people begin to feel more connected to themselves and more able to respond to life intentionally rather than from old patterns. I also recognize that many of our ways of coping are shaped not only by personal experiences, but by larger social and cultural systems. Healing can become a process of reclaiming your voice, your needs, and the freedom to live in ways that feel more aligned and embodied.
what about somatic therapy?
Somatic therapy includes the body as part of the healing process — not just thoughts or emotions. From a somatic lens, our experiences live in the body: in breath, tension, posture, nervous system responses, and the ways we’ve learned to move through the world and relate to others.
In our work together, we might gently slow down and notice what is happening in the present moment - patterns of bracing, shutting down, overextending, holding back, or reaching for connection. Rather than seeing these responses as something “wrong,” somatic therapy understands them as intelligent adaptations shaped by our lived experiences.
Influenced by Generative Somatics, I also recognize that our bodies are shaped not only by personal trauma, but by relationships, culture, oppression, and larger social systems. Many of the ways we learn to survive make sense within the conditions we’ve had to navigate. Healing, then, is not only about insight, but about building the capacity for greater grounding, agency, connection, and choice in how we want to live and relate.
“Somatics helps us understand ourselves in this wholeness, and it also helps us understand how we change.” - Staci Haines
i resonate most with:
queer, trans, and gender-expansive teens and adults & people navigating relational anxiety, codependency, loneliness, people pleasing, and religious trauma
other themes I work with are: anxiety + panic, family + community estrangement, depression + suicidality, complex trauma, addiction + recovery, and attachment
we might work well together if:
you're looking for a therapist who's laidback, playful, and genuine. I bring humor, creativity, movement, humanness, and imagery into the room.
I care about consent, collaboration, and disrupting the oppressive hierarchy that therapy can sometimes replicate.
what it’s like to sit with me:
In session, we’ll follow what feels alive! We'll start with a check-in, and let whatever arises generate the next moment. Sessions flow freely, are grounded in the present moment, and oftentimes might include an invitation for a creative experiment. We might even have some… say it with me… FUN.
Most importantly, I want you to feel safe and comfy - kick your shoes off, grab a snack (I have an endless sour candy supply), lie down, check out my fidget toy collection, find your favorite emotional support pillow. This space is for you. I hope all parts of you will feel safe to fully show up as they are.