Saara
Hi, I’m
a San Francisco-based clinical psychologist working with individual adults. I am currently offering in-person and remote sessions to California residents.
When I ask new clients what brings them to therapy, I am often told it is because they are feeling “stuck.”
Many of my clients struggle with questions related to values and life purpose. Others may require support navigating transitions, overcoming burnout, or setting boundaries in their professional lives and relationships. And several experience stress, anxiety, depression or ADHD that is beginning to erode their self-confidence and quality of life.
If any of this resonates with you, you’ve come to the right place! By working collaboratively together, I can help you gain clarity on and alignment with your values and goals, empower you to confront challenges and embrace change, and equip you with the skills necessary to move from feeling stuck to living a fulfilling and purpose-driven life.
My clinical specialties and areas of interest include:
Evidence-based interventions
Anxiety disorders (i.e. panic disorder, social anxiety, health anxiety, phobias)
Depression and low self-esteem/self-worth
ADHD (i.e. executive functioning, motivation, procrastination, time management, task-switching & goal-setting/follow through)
Emotion regulation and emotional intelligence (EQ)
Perfectionism and people-pleasing
Over-control, over-functioning and overachieving
Distress tolerance and increasing acceptance around change, uncertainty and discomfort
Indecisiveness and decision fatigue
Insomnia and sleep hygiene
Anxiety and stress related to immigration status/elections
Self-acceptance and self-compassion
Dating and relationship concerns
Job dissatisfaction, stress and burnout
Imposter syndrome
Work/life integration
Boundary-setting in relationships, work and digital life
Communication skills training and social skills building
Questions related to life purpose and meaning
Values-based living and self-care
Harm reduction around substance use and other high-risk behaviors
Psychedelically-informed psychotherapy
Ketamine preparation and integration
Integration following altered states of consciousness or non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSCs)
My Background
Prior to entering the field of mental health, I was a sociology major at McGill University in Montreal. It was in my final year there that I discovered my interest in psychology and desire to help individuals make sense of the ways in which their personalities, life experiences, and relationships influence their behaviors and perspectives. This motivated me to obtain a second degree in psychology from York University in Toronto, and then fulfill my dream of moving out to California for graduate school, where I received my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium.
My clinical training includes working with underserved populations in community mental health settings and veterans at the VA; performing clinical research and neuropsychological assessments at Stanford University; and providing exposure therapy to individuals with anxiety disorders and OCD in private practice. I completed my predoctoral internship at UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services in Los Angeles and postdoctoral work at Notre Dame de Namur University Counseling Center in the Bay Area, where I thrived in the energy of university campuses and embraced the challenge of supporting students during such formative and transitional years.
After completing my training I began working with young and early-career professionals, many of whom I accompanied along their professional journeys as they grew into more senior roles or established careers. Living in San Francisco has positioned me to understand the unique personalities and challenges of those employed in the tech industry and I have several clients who are involved in startups or who have founded their own companies. More recently, I have been providing mental health support to those undergoing ketamine treatment, which you can learn more about here.
My Approach
My approach to therapy tends to be integrative, action-oriented, and values-centered. I encourage my clients to let go of judgments or assumptions and to get curious about themselves, a process that often involves replacing self-criticism with self-compassion. I have been told that I “ask the tough questions,” but that this ultimately helps foster insight, understanding, and new perspectives that lead to meaningful and lasting change.
I employ techniques from various evidence-based therapy modalities, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and mindfulness. These treatment approaches have been shown by research to be effective for a range of concerns including stress, anxiety, depression, relationship concerns, ADHD, sleep disturbance, and alcohol/substance use disorders, and can be adapted to address each individual’s specific needs. Learn more about evidence-based therapy here.
I also provide integration therapy, which is widely considered a form of support around non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSCs), for example after psychedelic use. However I think of it more broadly as the restoring of wholeness to one’s life; the process of reconnecting and aligning the differentiated parts of yourself and your life into a functional whole. In this way, integration can apply not only to NOSCs but to every facet of your life and being. Learn more about integration here.
What Boutique Therapy Means to Me
Most of my training and experience in mental health has been in systems that promoted taking on as many clients as possible and filling every opening in my schedule. At the beginning of 2020 when so many of us shifted to remote work, I doubled my caseload due to the convenience of telehealth, increased need for mental health services, and sudden limitations to our collective lives outside of work. I quickly became burned out and realized I needed to make some changes.
After some time dedicated to my own personal work and catalyzed by the decision to start my own practice, I was drawn to the concept of boutique therapy. To me, this meant shifting to a model where quality is prioritized over quantity, and where I intentionally maintain a smaller caseload so that I can be more attentive to my clients and customize my services to their individual needs. I pride myself on the strength and depth of my relationships with my clients and on my ability to model the very practices I counsel so many on, such as the importance of prioritizing self-care, setting healthy boundaries around work, and aligning your work with your values.
For this reason, I purposefully limit the number of clients I see at any given time. This not only allows me to bring my best self to our sessions, but to devote time and energy in between our sessions to reflect on content from the previous sessions and to brush up on interventions, stay informed of the current research and best practices, and generate ideas for future sessions that I believe will benefit your specific needs. Learn more about boutique therapy here.