About Sara
Sara Contreras is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) based in California. She uses a straightforward, kind approach to help people cope with stress, worry, trauma, and life changes. Her style aims to make talking about hard things easier and less overwhelming.
Sara combines attachment-based and client-centered ideas to create a calm space for honest conversation. She listens closely and helps people identify patterns that cause pain. Then she works with them to try practical steps that fit their daily life.
How Sara works
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, appears in her work when clients want tools to manage upsetting thoughts and behavior. She also uses Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, known as EMDR, for people processing traumatic memories or intense emotional reactions. With five years of professional experience, Sara brings steady, patient support.
She helps people facing depression, anxiety, grief, relationship or intimacy concerns, parenting strain, and challenges related to ADHD, bipolar mood issues, or chronic health stressors. Additional focus areas include attachment and abandonment concerns, body image, codependency, and alternative sex cultures such as BDSM and kink. Sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs.
She speaks English and practices as a California LMFT. To start, a simple matching questionnaire helps connect someone to scheduling options that work for them.
Sara lists 12 ways of working on the entry:
What Sara works with
The areas below are the ones Sara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 5 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | California |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches online and how they help
Sara commonly uses Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early relationships shape current patterns. This approach helps people understand trust, closeness, and repeating cycles in relationships and in their own behavior.She also uses Client-Centered Therapy, which prioritizes listening and working at the client's pace. This style focuses on understanding a person's experience and building goals together rather than imposing solutions.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, provides practical techniques to change upsetting thought patterns and behaviors. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress where small, structured changes can make daily life easier.
Finding the right combination of approaches is part of the work. The therapist collaborates with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and comfort level. That process can change over time as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video is helpful for deeper, face-to-face conversations. Phone sessions can be a good option when lower bandwidth or no camera is preferred. Live chat and text messaging allow for shorter check-ins or ongoing reflection between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and varied daily routines.
Start online instead of waiting
Our partner service asks a few questions about what you are looking for and matches you with a therapist for sessions from home.
Book with SaraWe will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.
Common questions
What concerns does Sara address?
What is her therapy style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
Where is she licensed and practicing?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin therapy with her?
A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you. Entries are not assessed or endorsed by this directory.
Other entries for stress, anxiety
Supportive LCSW helping people build strength and clarity
Practical, trauma-aware therapy for everyday life
Practical, relational therapy for life transitions