Sara
Counselling and family therapy for children, young people, adults and families. Sara works by phone, by video, or face to face at your home or somewhere in the community.
- Works with
- Children, young people, adults and families
- Sessions
- Phone, video, at home or in the community
- Funding
- NDIS or self-funded
16 years in the services families deal with
Sara is a counsellor, family therapist and support worker. Before counselling she worked in early childhood education, youth justice, residential care, disability support and alcohol and other drug withdrawal services, including six years in youth residential care.
That work put her alongside people dealing with trauma, complex mental health, neurodivergence, family breakdown and big changes like a new diagnosis or a move. It also means she knows how child protection, justice, disability and school systems work from the inside, which helps when a family has several services involved at once.
She has her own lived experience across several of these areas too. Her style is warm and direct. She takes the time to understand your story, doesn't push, and tells you honestly what she's noticing.
Sara holds qualifications in psychology and counselling, and is trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for keeping things calm and safe when a situation escalates.
Approaches she uses
Sara picks the approach to suit the person and what they want to work on. Her work is trauma-informed, attachment-informed and built on your strengths.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness
Noticing hard thoughts and feelings without letting them make the decisions, and acting on what matters to you.
Psychodynamic
Looking at how earlier experiences and old patterns show up in how you feel and relate to people now.
Humanistic and person-centred
You set the direction. Sara listens closely and works from what you say you need.
Interpersonal
Focuses on relationships, and on the conflicts, losses and role changes that affect how you're going.
Solution-focused
Starts from what's already working and plans the next small step from there.
Play therapy
For younger clients, play, drawing and sand trays give a way to show what's hard to put into words.
Systemic family therapy
Works with the whole family: how you talk to each other, the patterns that keep conflict going, and what each person can change.
Functional Family Therapy
A structured, evidence-based family program for young people and their parents or carers, run over a set number of sessions.
Kids, teens, adults and whole families
Individual sessions are open to children through to adults. Most of Sara's work is with children and young people aged 9 and over, and with the parents and carers around them.
Sara often works with
- Children and young people aged 9 and over
- Families dealing with conflict, separation, or a lot of services at once
- Parents and carers who want help supporting a child day to day
- Neurodivergent people and people living with disability
- People who have been through trauma or a hard run of events
- Anyone adjusting to a new diagnosis
Wherever talking is easiest
Phone and video sessions work from anywhere. Face-to-face sessions come to you: at home, at school, at a community centre, or somewhere like a park or a cafe. Some people find it easier to talk side by side on a walk than across a desk.
Seeing someone where they already are suits people who find clinics stressful, have trouble getting to appointments, or settle better somewhere familiar. Sara agrees the place with you first, with privacy and safety in mind, and you can change it whenever you like.
Sara has evening and weekend times. Call us to check what's free.
Using your NDIS plan
Under the NDIS, counselling can be funded as capacity building, to learn new skills and strategies, or as maintenance support, to hold on to the progress you've made. It can also include support for families and carers with everyday activities at home.
In sessions you can work through how you're feeling, practise communicating in ways that land better, set goals you can check, and work out what gets in the way, whether that's to do with your disability or with how the world around you is set up. For example, after a new diagnosis Sara can help you put together a plan for coping day to day.
Anything used in a session, such as sand trays or fidget tools, is included in the session cost. No NDIS plan, or no counselling in it? You can self-fund.
Sara doesn't provide crisis support. If you or someone else is in danger, call 000. For 24-hour crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Want to talk to Sara?
Call us and ask for a free chat with Sara. We'll find a time that suits you both and answer any questions about funding.
Call (03) 9968 7766