About Sara
Sara Sutherland is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) based in Michigan who helps people cope with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and major life changes. She also offers support for issues like compassion fatigue, addiction, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting strain, and self-esteem challenges.
Sara brings eight years of clinical experience to her practice and focuses on listening first so people feel seen and heard. Her style is warm and straightforward.
How Sara works
She aims to create a genuine, respectful space where people can talk through what matters most. Sara combines practical skills with steady emotional support to help people make changes that fit their lives. Training and past roles include work in independent practice, health care settings, and hospice care.
Those experiences gave her hands-on exposure to grief, chronic and terminal illness, caregiver stress, and end-of-life counseling. The mix of settings informs how she supports people facing complex life challenges. Sara uses an array of approaches tailored to each person.
She draws on client-centered listening, cognitive behavioral techniques to change stressful thinking and behavior, mindfulness to reduce reactivity, and emotion-focused work to deepen connections with feelings. She also uses dialectical strategies for managing intense emotions and motivational interviewing to build readiness for change. Sessions are offered through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging.
People start by completing a short matching questionnaire and schedule sessions according to therapist availability.
Sara lists 8 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
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 8 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Michigan |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Approaches that guide online sessions
Client-centered therapy emphasizes listening and collaboration. The therapist follows the person’s lead, reflects concerns back, and helps people clarify what matters to them; this approach is useful for building trust and exploring personal goals.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with practical behavior changes. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress when people want clear steps to shift thinking and routine.
Dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, teaches skills for regulating strong emotions, tolerating distress, and improving interpersonal effectiveness. It can help when emotions feel overwhelming or relationships are frequently intense.
Finding the best approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk through goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped in the past. Together they decide whether to focus on skills practice, emotional processing, or a mix of methods and adjust the plan over time.
Online sessions are offered by licensed professionals through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video allows face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone can be a good option when bandwidth is limited, live chat works for shorter check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving, or other commitments.
Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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What is her therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
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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.
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