Welcome. I’m Sarah
I’m an Aucklander, although I’ve also lived in Christchurch and Wellington, the UK and briefly in Spain. As well as private counselling, I’ve also worked as an alcohol and drug counsellor for a government agency, and as a counsellor for students at an Auckland tertiary education institution. I love amateur garden projects, all libraries, and poems - this is a favourite.
As a kid, I remember being baffled by the world’s busy-ness, wishing everybody would just sit still and listen. Now I know first-hand what it is to feel stressed and unable to be still. But my passion for slowing down, gaining perspective and really experiencing what’s happening remains. Whether that’s savouring the good, or stopping ‘numbing’ long enough to process grief, loss, confusion, or even just exhaustion.
I love to help others transcend the daily ‘noise’ and pay attention to what’s really happening. In the counselling room, I can help you to untangle what is causing you stress or pain, and together we can choose tools that feel right for you to build a path to a healthy, connected and ‘right’ life. I want to help you feel like yourself - and for that to be great!
My own path to counselling has involved struggles with:
major life and career dissatisfaction and making change after years of feeling ‘stuck’
spirituality / perfectionism / disordered eating and body image issues / relationships.
I could talk all day about the difficulties many of us face when making our own way outside of the faiths in which we were raised, and the sense of ‘cultural grief’ that goes along with this. It’s an isolated place to be. You don’t have to go through it alone.
I am also experienced in working with addiction - which is so much broader than drugs and alcohol. I love helping people uncover the need beneath their addictions, and to begin giving themselves what their hearts are asking for.
Whatever you are going through, I know you can come out the other side. If you feel that I can help, let’s talk.
Training and experience
I am a full member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC).
I studied counselling at the University of Auckland, and I practice group and individual counselling. I have particular experience working with clients to make behaviour changes around substance use. I supplement my person-centred counselling training with elements CBT, internal parts work, motivational interviewing skills and other modalities as necessary. My private practice is individual only.
I have undergone my own personal counselling throughout my life; I return to this as needed, to ensure I am ‘right’ enough with myself to be of service to my clients. I also attend external supervision for my counselling work, and am a provisional member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC).
I was raised in the Anglican faith in New Zealand. While that will always be my heritage and forms part of who I am today, I do not currently identify with a religious denomination. I am interested in helping others to make sense of their religious heritages and to navigate spiritual confusion. Developing into my own spirituality is an ongoing journey for me.