Sarah Smith

Welcome:)

As a Clinical Social Worker offering a Person-Centered, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive approach to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, I aim to collaborate with you to create a space dedicated to exploring your unique inner experiences, including those that feel difficult or impossible to put into words. While inner experiences (dreams, struggles, hopes, patterns, voices, questions, etc.) may seem on the surface to be senseless, confusing, or overwhelming, they are the drivers behind symptoms and cycles which can leave us feeling stuck or victimized within our own minds and bodies.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is based on the recognition that there is a reason we find ourselves stuck in painful symptoms and patterns, and that the language of our symptoms deserves a place to be carefully deciphered so we can listen to the underlying struggle of which the symptom is only a manifestation.

My clinical work is fueled by a deep and unconditional respect and commitment towards the potential for increased freedom, possibility, and life within each person; this commitment grounds my collaborative approach, which invites ease, openness, curiosity, and creativity. And since psychotherapy is most enriching when we speak as freely as possible, we’d  incorporate whatever tools allow you to speak most freely in sessions-whether that’s art, writing, music, sand play, or any other means of expression that we discover together.

Prior to moving to Colorado I completed a clinical fellowship in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at Harvard Medical School and also have training in Lacanian Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Creative Arts Psychotherapy, Narrative Therapy, Open Dialogue, and Structural Family Therapy.

I work with children, adolescents, and adults, and have specialized training and experience in treating complex trauma, serious and/or chronic mental illness, psychosis,  depression, autism, eating disorders, panic and anxiety disorders, self-harm, and suicidality. I especially appreciate working with adolescents and young adults, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, survivors of abuse and religious trauma, and artists navigating the complexities of creative life.

I would welcome the opportunity to join you in co-creating a space tailored to discovering and inviting what makes you pulse and allows you to access renewed energy, agency, and desire.