When care isn’t culturally sensitive, clients often carry the added burden of explaining themselves or their loved ones in order to be understood. They may feel pressured to clarify why something is not considered problematic within their culture, or to defend that their family’s intentions are rooted in care, even if Western psychology might view things differently.

This creates a kind of cognitive labour in therapy. Instead of focusing fully on healing, clients end up spending energy justifying their experiences or translating them against Western social norms. This can be exhausting and, at times, invalidating.

Sara recognizes that every cultural value system whether more individualistic or more community-based carries both strengths and challenges. Her role is not to impose one worldview over another, but to honour each client’s unique perspective and integrate it into the therapeutic process.

When you live with anxiety, panic attacks, or complex trauma, your nervous system can get “stuck” in survival mode. Instead of feeling safe and grounded, your brain may remain in fight, flight, freeze or fawn even when there’s no actual danger. In these states, it’s difficult or sometimes impossible to think rationally or talk yourself out of fear. That’s not weakness; it’s your brain protecting you the only way it knows how.

Neuroscience and polyvagal-informed therapy recognizes this. Rather than pushing you to “just relax” or “think differently,” we use approaches that calm the autonomic nervous system first. By helping the brain shift out of survival mode, clients can access greater clarity, emotional balance, and resilience.

Another way this shows up is strong emotional feeling come up to seemingly small issues. Maybe you are called emotional or sensitive in those moments. You try and rationalize and still can’t stop how strongly you feel about this.

Example:

You feel triggered by your partner spending time with his friends. The emotions feel very strong and you can’t reconcile why this is so distressing for you. You’ve had a neglectful childhood. Your brain may be seeing your current experience as familiar to your childhood. It sends signals to your body to respond in the same extreme distress as you did back then. Logically processing this in session can be unsuccessful and sometimes even harmful. Having a therapist understand this is so important to attaining your goals. Being able to bring awareness and differentiate what state of mind you are in changes how you manage it in the moment.

“Somatic” means “of the body.” Somatic therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on how stress, anxiety, and trauma affect the body—not just the mind. It helps you pay attention to body sensations, tension, and patterns so you can release stress and feel calmer.

In a somatic therapy session, you may be guided to notice your breath, posture, or physical sensations. You might try grounding exercises, gentle movement, or mindfulness practices. Sessions are always at your pace, and the goal is to help your body and mind feel safe and more relaxed.

Yes. Anxiety often shows up in the body, like a racing heart, tight chest, or restlessness. Somatic therapy teaches you how to calm these physical signals, which then reduces anxious thoughts and helps you feel more in control.

Everyone’s journey is different. Some people begin to feel relief after just a few sessions, while others need more time to work through deeper patterns or complexity of concerns. Sara will work with you to set clear goals and check in on progress so you know therapy is moving in the right direction. We ALWAYS measure your success and make sure this relationship is fruitful to you.