Sarah Keramati, Ph.D. LPC, NCC, CSAT-C

My purpose is to guide and facilitate my clients in discovering the goodness and tenderness that we all possess inside ourselves. My clinical experience includes, but is not limited to, working with couples, adolescents, adults, and families facing addiction, PTSDtrauma, codependency legal andor financial issues, anger issues, and shameself-esteem issues. I am a Somatic Experiencing Advanced Participant. I work from a mindfulness-based practice of "being with what is," while teaching clients how to utilize their body as an ally in their healing journey. Problems can be effectively addressed when a systemic approach to therapy is adopted. I do not just do talk therapy. I believe people learn best by doing. My therapeutic approach explores the cognitive, somatic and emotional systems, in which unresolved past issues may reside and often cause people's present life problems. I support each client with compassion and understanding, all the while challenging the compulsive, destructive behaviors, which my clients seek to change.

My practice is informed by my personal experience as well as my academic and professional training. My bi-cultural identity as an Iranian-American integrated gives me a unique insight, desire, and opportunity to influence and contribute at Global and Local Level.

My role in therapy is twofold: to act a guide for my clients in exploring the patterns of dysfunction that may exist in their family of origin and in their current relationships, so that my clients can understand, process, and move on and make different choices. Secondly, I act as a mentor, in helping my clients to work through their issues, and learn different and new skills in life. In practicing Family Systems Therapy and Internal Family System, I do not blame any one family member or partner-spouse, and approach each client with compassion and curiosity.

I walk with my clients through their journey. I tend to avoid giving advice. Instead, I ask people whether they want to continue living the life they are living, which they claim to be unhappy, or do they want to take a leap of faith in themselves and discover that, after much hard work and pain, there is potentially a healthier and more empowered life they could be living.