About Sarah
Sarah Spurling is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or stuck. She focuses on practical support that makes daily life easier. Her approach is calm and relational, aimed at helping clients feel understood and steady rather than rushed toward change.
Sarah often works with people managing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and questions about gender and identity. She also supports those dealing with self-esteem, abandonment, attachment issues, and challenges related to autism and neurodivergence.
Background and approach
Her practice includes helping people cope with chronic illness, caregiver strain, and work-related stress for first responders. Her style centers on building a trusting relationship first. Sessions focus on clear strategies that fit into a client’s routine and on skills that reduce overwhelm.
Sarah emphasizes pacing the work so clients feel ready before trying new coping tools. She draws on approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy to help people notice unhelpful patterns and try small shifts. Client-centered and existential ideas guide conversations about meaning, values, and identity.
Sarah has three years of clinical experience and holds an Illinois LCSW. She offers sessions in English using video calls, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Getting started involves a short matching questionnaire and scheduling a first session.
How therapy approaches translate to online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, avoidance, and living with uncertainty. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and practicing small behavior changes to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. Client-Centered Therapy prioritizes the therapeutic relationship, offering listening and empathy so clients feel seen and can explore issues at their own pace.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as needed so the work fits the client’s life and rhythm.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule. Video is good for face-to-face conversation, phone can be a simpler option when bandwidth is limited, and messaging lets people check in between sessions or have shorter, frequent touchpoints. These options increase flexibility for people managing work, caregiving, or health concerns.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- 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
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