About Sarah
Sarah Spurling is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or exhausted. She meets adults who struggle with anxiety, trauma, low motivation, or who find daily life takes more effort than it should. Sarah writes plainly and focuses on making therapy feel manageable and real.
Sarah uses a warm, relational style. Sessions aim to build trust so clients can stop masking and speak honestly. The work is paced to each person - not about rushing change but about learning what helps in everyday life.
Background and approach
She supports adults with stress, grief, self-esteem concerns, and issues related to gender and sexual identity. Sarah also works with people living with trauma, and with autistic adults including those exploring a later-in-life diagnosis. Her practice includes attention to body-based experiences through somatic work alongside talk-based methods.
In sessions she blends approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, cognitive behavioral tools, client-centered listening, and skills from dialectical behavior therapy. That mix helps people notice patterns, try different skills, and make choices that match their values. Sarah has three years of clinical experience and holds an LCSW.
She sees people from Illinois and runs individual therapy and group options focused on support and practical coping strategies. Starting therapy is framed as a step taken together, not a test you must pass alone.
How somatic and talk approaches work online
Somatic-informed therapy helps people notice how stress and emotions show up in the body, such as tightness, breath changes, or restlessness. Online sessions can guide gentle body awareness and grounding strategies while you sit at home or another comfortable space. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, focuses on clarifying personal values and taking small steps toward them even when hard feelings are present; it can help with anxiety, avoidance, and low motivation. Client-Centered Therapy prioritizes deep listening and a nonjudgmental relationship so people feel heard and can explore what matters to them.Choosing the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. The therapist will work together with the client to test methods, notice what helps, and adjust based on goals, comfort, and day-to-day life. That collaborative stance keeps treatment practical and tailored.
Online formats such as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. These options allow for real-time conversation, brief check-ins by message, or a paced schedule that meets different energy levels. The flexibility supports continuity of care and lets people use approaches that suit their routines and needs.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dissociation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English