Sarah Thomas
believe therapy works best when you can show up as your whole self—without feeling judged, analyzed, or like you need to have everything figured out before you walk through the door. My style is warm, down-to-earth, collaborative, and direct. I bring humor into the room when it fits, ask thoughtful questions, and won’t just sit back and nod. I want therapy to feel like a genuine conversation while also helping you understand yourself differently and make meaningful changes in your life. I work especially well with adults who are overwhelmed, anxious, navigating ADHD, depression, relationship challenges, major life transitions, grief, trauma, or simply feeling like they are carrying too much. Many of my clients are capable, responsible people who are used to taking care of everyone else but struggle to extend that same understanding to themselves. You may be functioning on the outside while privately feeling exhausted, stuck, disconnected, or unsure of what comes next. I have more than a decade of experience as a social worker and therapist, including many years working in emergency and mental health settings. Those experiences have shaped my ability to remain grounded when life gets complicated and taught me that people rarely fit neatly into a box. As a therapist, I balance compassion with honesty. We’ll explore where patterns came from, but we’ll also focus on what you can do with that understanding now. My goal is to create a space where you feel genuinely understood, challenged when helpful, and supported in building a life that feels more manageable, authentic, and your own.
First session
Starting therapy can feel awkward, especially if you’ve never done it before. My goal for the first session is for you to leave feeling comfortable, understood, and hopefully a little relieved that you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. We’ll talk about what brought you to therapy, what’s happening in your life now, and what you’d like to be different. I’ll ask questions, but I want it to feel like a conversation—not an interview. You don’t need to know exactly what your goals are or have your story perfectly organized. We’ll figure that out together. With individual clients, I focus on getting to know you as a whole person, understanding the patterns and experiences that have shaped you, and identifying where we can begin. With couples, my role shifts slightly. The relationship becomes my client. I work to understand each partner’s perspective while paying attention to the patterns happening between you. I’m not there to decide who is right or wrong or to take sides. Instead, we’ll work toward better communication, greater understanding, healthier patterns, and clarity about what each person needs from the relationship. Whether you come individually or as a couple, you can expect me to be engaged, curious, honest, and human. You won’t be expected to share everything on day one—we’ll start where you are and build from there.
Strengths
Life has taught me that very few things are black and white. I’ve experienced loss, major life transitions, relationships that changed unexpectedly, parenting, career changes, and seasons where I’ve had to figure out what life looks like when the plan I had is no longer the plan in front of me. Those experiences don’t mean I know exactly what someone else is going through, but they have made me a therapist who is comfortable sitting with uncertainty, grief, frustration, humor, and the messier parts of being human. In session, I’m not someone who will sit silently and nod for an hour. I’m engaged, conversational, curious, and pretty down-to-earth. I will absolutely hold space when that is what you need. Sometimes you need somewhere safe to say the thing you haven’t been able to say anywhere else, without immediately trying to fix it. But I’ll also challenge you. If I notice a pattern, contradiction, or way you may be getting in your own way, I’m probably going to gently point it out. I may ask a question that makes you stop and think, “Okay…I didn’t want you to notice that.” I believe good therapy requires both compassion and accountability. My job isn’t to tell you how to live your life. It’s to help you understand yourself more clearly, recognize the patterns that aren’t serving you anymore, and feel supported enough to try something different. And when appropriate, we’ll probably laugh along the way—because sometimes humor is part of getting through the hard stuff, too.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who looks like they’re holding it together on the outside but often feels overwhelmed, anxious, stuck, or exhausted underneath it all. You may be the person everyone relies on—the responsible one, the problem-solver, the caretaker—while struggling to give yourself that same attention and understanding. I enjoy working with adults navigating anxiety, ADHD, depression, relationship and family challenges, grief, trauma, parenting, burnout, and major life transitions. You may be facing a relationship change, questioning what you want next, struggling with boundaries or people-pleasing, or noticing patterns that keep showing up despite your best efforts to change them. You don’t need to come to therapy knowing exactly what you want or how to get there. Sometimes, “I know something needs to change” is enough. I work best with clients who want therapy to feel active and collaborative. I’ll listen, validate, ask questions, help you connect the dots, and challenge you when it’s helpful. We can understand where patterns came from while also figuring out what you want to do differently now. Ultimately, my goal is to help you better understand yourself, trust yourself, and feel more confident navigating whatever comes next.
Origin story
I don’t think there was one dramatic moment when I realized this was the right path. It happened gradually during my years working as a social worker in a busy emergency room. I spent nearly a decade meeting people on some of the hardest days of their lives. I sat with people experiencing mental health crises, unexpected loss, relationship violence, overwhelming anxiety, family conflict, and circumstances they never imagined they would face. Often, I was meeting someone for the first time during a moment when their life felt completely upside down. What stayed with me was how much could happen when someone felt genuinely heard and had another person willing to sit with them in the mess without judging them or trying to rush them through it. I learned that I was comfortable in those spaces. I could stay calm when things were complicated, ask the difficult questions, and help someone begin figuring out what came next. Over time, I realized I wanted the opportunity to know people beyond that single moment of crisis. I didn’t only want to help someone get through the worst day—I wanted to be there for what came afterward. That realization ultimately brought me to therapy. My years in emergency social work still influence how I practice today. I know life can be messy, people are complicated, and healing rarely follows a straight line. You don’t have to clean up your story before bringing it into therapy. We can start exactly where you are.
Ongoing work together
Therapy with me is not about having the same conversation every week. Each session builds on what we’ve learned about you, the patterns we’ve identified, and what is happening in your life right now. Some sessions may involve digging deeper into where certain beliefs, reactions, or relationship patterns came from. Others will be much more focused on what happened this week and how you want to handle it differently. I’ll help you make connections between the two so that insight eventually translates into change outside of therapy. Progress can look different for everyone. Sometimes it’s fewer symptoms, but often it’s noticing a pattern sooner, setting a boundary without as much guilt, communicating instead of shutting down, recovering more quickly when something goes wrong, or realizing that something that once felt overwhelming simply doesn’t have the same power anymore. With couples, we’ll continue identifying the cycles you get stuck in, practice communicating differently, and work toward understanding what is happening underneath the conflict—not just solving the argument of the week. We’ll regularly check in about what is helping, what isn’t, and whether our goals need to change. Ultimately, I want you to develop tools, insight, and confidence that extend beyond our sessions. Good therapy should help you become more capable of navigating your life—not more dependent on your therapist.
Treatment methods
Solution-Focused Brief Treatment
I use solution-focused therapy to help you identify what you want to be different and find practical ways to move toward it. While understanding the past can be important, we don’t always have to understand every detail of why something started before we can begin making changes. We’ll look at what is already working, build on your strengths, and identify small, realistic steps that can create meaningful change in your everyday life.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I use ACT to help you change your relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions rather than feeling like you have to eliminate them before you can move forward. We’ll work on noticing when anxiety, fear, guilt, or self-doubt is driving your decisions and explore what actually matters to you. Together, we’ll practice making choices that align with your values, even when uncomfortable thoughts or feelings show up along the way.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use CBT to help you recognize the connection between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Together, we’ll identify patterns that may be keeping you stuck and look at whether the stories you tell yourself are accurate, helpful, or simply familiar. Rather than just telling you to “think positively,” we’ll work toward more balanced ways of thinking and practical changes you can use in everyday life.
Person-centered (Rogerian)
I believe you are the expert on your own life. My role isn’t to tell you what you should do, but I also won’t just sit quietly and nod. I’ll listen, ask questions, offer another perspective, and sometimes challenge you while respecting that the decisions are ultimately yours. I want therapy to be a place where you can be honest, feel understood, and figure out what feels right for you.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Other specialties
Doesn't specialize in
Licensed in
- MinnesotaLicense 21184