Sara is an Austin based Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Sex Therapist (CST) through AASECT and the Sexual Health Alliance. She was born and raised right here in the ATX and completed her Master’s degree in Counseling from St. Edward’s University, in Austin, Texas. She is also a former award winning Columbia University Professor and holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Texas Tech University. She has been published in Cosmopolitan magazine as an expert in Sex and Relationships and featured in the Kama Sutra section.
She has three areas of specialization: (1) helping women heal and learn from unhealthy relationships (narcissistic partners), (2) Imago based couples counseling, and (3) relationship and sex therapy. She is an open-minded person and enjoys working with both couples in traditional monogamous relationships, marriages, and nontraditional polyamorous relationships. She is LGBTQ friendly and completed her assistantship at Enhancing Intimacy, a couples and sex therapy practice.
She believes that our relationships truly define each of us and form the foundation for our lives. As the famous Belgian psychotherapist and relationship expert, Esther Perel, says “the quality of your relationships determines the quality of our lives!”
Her Approach and Who She Can Help
Sara works from a systemic perspective with couples, individuals, and families on ways to create relationships that define not only who we are, but also who know we can become. She enjoys helping clients with their relationships, intimacy, connection, communication, spark, and sexual compatibility.
Other issues that she enjoys helping clients work through include:
- Identity and relationship conflicts stemming from personal and/or cultural differences,
- A loss or decrease of intimacy,
- Infidelity,
- Sexual incompatibilities,
- Medical difficulties and disability,
- Chronic pain,
- Miscarriage,
- Infertility,
- Sexual complications,
- Religious issues regarding sexuality and identity,
- Other gender and identity issues.
She also works with couples going through major life transitions, whether it be a new marriage, a recent divorce, the death of a parent, the birth of a new baby, or becoming empty nesters. She has also worked with many individuals recovering from narcissistic abuse or previous relationships involving someone with a personality disorder.
She works using an attachment lens to help her clients heal from previous attachment injuries in order to create better and stronger relationships. She also pulls from theorists such as Gottman, Hendrix, and Nagoski, in her couples work, as well as White (for Narrative Therapy).
Sara’s Background
In addition to holding a Master’s degree in Counseling from St. Edwards University, Sara also has a PhD in English from Texas Tech University, an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in Manhattan, and an Honors BA from the University of Texas in Austin.
In her first career, Sara was an English professor at Columbia University in their University Writing Program and still enjoys incorporating occasional writing and literature (bibliotherapy) into sessions when helpful. She also has commercially published articles on sex and relationships, some of which can be found here.
On a personal note, she moved back home to Austin to raise her family in 2011. She has an amazingly supportive partner and three beautiful kiddos.
