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Meet Sarah
About Sarah
Hi, I’m Sarah.
Professionally, I’m an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, Integrative Child Play Therapist, EMDR Therapist and Clinical Supervisor. I have more than 20 years’ experience working alongside children, young people, adults and families across education, community services, community health, the NDIS and private practice.
I’m based in Yarrawonga, providing therapy locally and via Telehealth across Australia.
Personally, I’m a mum to two energetic young boys and a second mum to two now-adult men. We are a blended, neurodivergent family. Like most families, our life has its own mix of personalities, strengths, challenges and plenty of moving parts.
I also bring my own lived experiences of grief and loss, different abilities, neurodivergence, family life and living regionally. I acknowledge the privileges I hold and recognise that my experiences are my own. Experiencing some things myself doesn’t mean I know what they are like for someone else.
What it has given me is a real appreciation for just how individual our experiences can be, even when parts of our stories might look similar from the outside.
Why I created Connect 2 Thrive
After more than 20 years working across education, community services, community health, the NDIS and private practice, I knew I wanted to create a practice that reflected the way I had come to understand people and the way I wanted to work.
I had seen how easily people can be defined by a diagnosis, a behaviour, what they are struggling with, or what a system needs from them.
I wanted something different.
Connect 2 Thrive grew from wanting to create a space where there is time to get to know you — your experiences, your relationships, your strengths, the things that are difficult, and all the different parts that make you who you are.
A place where children aren't simply seen as a behaviour that needs changing. Where neurodivergence isn't approached as something that needs fixing. Where adults don't have to arrive with everything figured out. And where our experiences are understood within the context of our relationships, families, environments and the lives we have lived.
That is what Connect 2 Thrive means to me.
It’s about meeting you where you are, being curious about what has shaped you, and working together toward what matters to you.
How I work
I’m naturally curious about people and their stories.
I want to get to know people — not just what has brought them to therapy, but all the different parts that makes them who they are.
The parts that are doing okay. The parts that might be struggling. The parts that have worked really hard to keep things going. The parts that protect, or maybe sometimes in ways that might not make sense yet. And the parts that may simply need some space to be heard and understood.
My work is relational, person-centred, neuroaffirming and trauma-informed. For me, that means I don’t see people as problems to be fixed, and I don’t expect people to fit into ta certain box.
In therapy I invite people to share their experiences, what life looks like for them now, their relationships, environment, strengths and the things that are difficult. These experiences are all part of our individual stories, and all worth taking the time to understand.
I listen and give space, but I’m also an active therapist.
People don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what they need or even where to start.
We can work that out together.
Working across the lifespan
One of the things I value about my work is being able to support people at different stages of life.
When I support children, I look beyond the behaviour we can see. I’m curious about what might be happening underneath, what they may be communicating and what they might need from the people and environments around them.
Children are part of families, schools and communities, so understanding those relationships and the world around them matters too.
I bring that same curiosity to my work with young people and adults. None of us exists in isolation. Our relationships, experiences, environments, identities, strengths and challenges all form different parts of our story.
There isn’t one version of what a person or family should look like.
I’d much rather get to know yours.
My professional background
I hold a Master of Social Work, Bachelor of Youth Studies and Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs, and I am an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW).
My advanced clinical training includes:
- Child-Centred Play Therapy
- Playful EMDR
- Filial Therapy (Child–Parent Relationship Therapy)
- AutPlay Therapy
- Interpersonal Neurobiology
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- RI-EMDR (Relational-Integrative)
- ai-EMDR (Attachment Informed)
- DBT Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
- Clinical Supervision
Across more than 20 years, I’ve worked in education, community and non-profit organisations, community health services, the NDIS and private practice.
Alongside my therapy work, I provide Clinical Supervision and Consulting for professionals and services.
You can read more about the different ways I work, including Integrative Child Play Therapy, EMDR and Focused Psychological Strategies, in the Looking for Therapy section.
Finding the right fit
Choosing a therapist is personal.
Qualifications and experience matter, but so does finding someone you feel comfortable talking to and someone you feel gets you.
I’m warm, curious and practical. There can be room for the hard stuff, but also humour, reflection and the ordinary parts of being human.
I won’t assume I know your experience. I’ll take the time to listen, get to know you and all your parts, and understand what matters to you.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before you get in touch.
Come as you are. We’ll start from there.
Sarah
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW)
Integrative Child Play Therapist | EMDR Therapist | Clinical Supervisor
