Sabrina Griswold
I’m a warm, direct, and down-to-earth therapist who believes therapy should feel like a genuine human relationship rather than a cold or overly clinical experience. My approach is rooted in feminist and existential therapy, which means we’ll look not only at what you’re experiencing internally, but also at how relationships, family patterns, societal expectations, identity, and your lived experiences have shaped you. I value humor, curiosity, honesty, and creating a space where you don’t have to edit yourself. My goal isn’t to tell you how to live your life, but to help you understand yourself more deeply, recognize patterns that may no longer serve you, and build a life that feels authentic and meaningful to you.
First session
I hope you leave our first session feeling heard, understood, and a little less overwhelmed by what brought you to therapy. The first session is largely about getting to know you, not just your symptoms, but your experiences, relationships, strengths, and what you want your life to look like. We’ll start wherever you are. My goal is for you to leave with a clearer sense of what we might work on together and, most importantly, feeling that you’ve found someone you can be yourself with.
Strengths
I’ve been told I have a big personality, and I don’t leave it at the virtual door when therapy starts. I bring warmth, humor, curiosity, and honesty into my sessions, and I want therapy to feel like a genuine human interaction. I’m not a therapist who will simply sit back and nod for an hour. I’ll give you space when you need it, but I’ll also ask difficult questions, point out patterns, offer my perspective, and challenge you when I think it could help you grow. My own life experiences, both good and difficult, have given me an appreciation for how complicated people, relationships, and major life transitions can be, and how rarely meaningful change follows a straight line. I value authenticity and want you to feel like you can show up as your full self without worrying about saying the “right” thing in therapy. My approach is compassionate but direct, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that you are ultimately the expert on your own life.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who is curious about themselves and ready to understand not just what they’re feeling, but why. I have a particular passion for working with women navigating major life transitions, relationship and attachment patterns, anxiety, trauma, grief, changing roles, identity, or questions about what they want the next chapter of their lives to look like. I’m especially interested in helping women examine the expectations and relationship patterns they’ve learned to live within and determine which ones they actually want to carry forward. You don’t need to come to therapy knowing exactly what you want to change; we can figure that out together. I work best with clients who want to go deeper than simply learning coping skills and are open to exploring patterns, relationships, past experiences, values, and the larger forces that have shaped them. You can expect therapy to be collaborative, honest, sometimes challenging, and still leave plenty of room for humor and being human.
Origin story
My interest in psychology started with my very first psychology class in high school. I remember realizing that understanding people, their experiences, relationships, behaviors, and what shapes who they become, was something I could spend my life doing. That curiosity has stayed with me ever since and ultimately led me to becoming a therapist. I’m still fascinated by the complexity of people and believe that understanding ourselves more deeply can create meaningful change. Being able to sit with people through difficult chapters, help them recognize patterns, and watch them develop greater compassion for themselves is what continues to make this work meaningful to me.
Ongoing work together
Some sessions may focus on what’s happening in your life right now, while others may take us deeper into understanding where certain beliefs, reactions, or relationship patterns came from. We’ll connect those pieces rather than treating each session as an isolated conversation. Progress won’t always mean that difficult feelings disappear; sometimes it looks like recognizing a pattern sooner, responding differently, setting a boundary you wouldn’t have set before, trusting yourself more, or realizing that something that once overwhelmed you no longer has the same power. We’ll regularly check in about what’s changing, what still feels difficult, and where you want our work to go next.
Treatment methods
Person-centered (Rogerian)
I believe you know yourself and your life better than anyone else, so therapy with me is collaborative rather than prescriptive. I’ll listen closely, ask questions, help you make connections, and offer honest feedback, but I won’t tell you what you “should” do. I want you to feel accepted as you are while also feeling supported and challenged as you grow. Over time, we’ll work toward helping you understand yourself more deeply, trust your own judgment, and make choices that feel authentic to who you are and the life you want to build.
Attachment-based
I pay attention to how your early relationships and past experiences may influence the way you connect with people today. We'll explore patterns around trust, closeness, conflict, boundaries, fear of rejection, and how you respond when relationships feel uncertain or unsafe.
Psychodynamic
I help you look beneath what’s happening on the surface and get curious about the patterns, emotions, and beliefs that may be influencing you without you fully realizing it. We’ll explore how past experiences and important relationships may show up in the way you see yourself, respond to others, or make choices today. Rather than judging these patterns, we’ll work to understand where they came from and whether they still serve you. As you become more aware of what’s driving your reactions, you can have more freedom to respond intentionally instead of automatically.
Trauma-Informed Care
I approach therapy with an understanding that difficult or traumatic experiences can continue to shape how you feel, respond, and relate to others long after the experience itself has ended. I’ll never push you to share or process something before you’re ready. We’ll work at a pace that feels manageable, focusing on helping you understand your responses, recognize triggers, build a greater sense of safety, and develop ways to cope when difficult emotions or memories arise. You remain in control of what we explore and how we approach it.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
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Licensed in
- CaliforniaLicense 23198