Find a therapist in Scottsdale, AZ — covered by insurance

I'm a clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience in this field. I opened my practice because I believe therapy should feel like a place where you can finally exhale.

I'm a Latina therapist, and while I work with people from all backgrounds, my practice is intentionally a safe space for people of color — a place where you don't have to explain or translate your experience before we can even begin the real work.

I work with people navigating major life transitions — the kind that shake up your identity and force you to ask, who am I now, and what do I actually want? A lot of my clients come to me while they're standing at a crossroads: considering leaving a relationship that no longer feels safe or loving, moving through separation or divorce, or trying to make sense of relationship patterns that keep repeating no matter who they're with.

I have a particular passion for working with survivors of narcissistic abuse. If you've spent years questioning your own reality, shrinking yourself to keep the peace, or wondering if you're "too sensitive," I want you to know: what you experienced was real, and healing from it is absolutely possible.

Chronic stress doesn't just live in your mind — it shows up in your body. Tension, fatigue, trouble sleeping, a nervous system that never quite feels safe. Together, we'll work on understanding those patterns, regulating your nervous system, and building real tools for managing your emotions — not just talking about them.

My goal is to help you understand yourself more deeply, break cycles that no longer serve you, and rebuild a relationship with yourself rooted in compassion instead of criticism. Because healing isn't just about surviving what happened to you — it's about learning to love yourself and build a life you're genuinely excited to live.

If this resonates with you, I'd be honored to walk alongside you.

If you’re looking for support with PTSD, complex trauma, mood disorders, ADHD, personality disorders, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts, I want you to know you don’t have to carry it alone.

Since 2017, I’ve worked with clients ages 12+ in settings ranging from wilderness therapy and inpatient hospitalization to residential treatment and private practice. I also provide individual, family, and coparenting therapy.

Healing can begin with considering how past experiences have shaped your view of self, emotional patterns, and relationships with others. Grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, and the weight of patterns carried across a lifetime have a way of becoming invisible — so woven into daily life that they no longer feel like patterns at all. Just how things are now. You may have tried to push through, stay busy, or simply manage — and found yourself back in the same place, wondering why nothing seems to stick.

What most people don't realize is that the experiences keeping them stuck aren't just stored in memory — they live in the body. In the tension you hold without knowing it. In the way your breath shifts in certain rooms, around certain people, in certain moments that shouldn't feel as heavy as they do. This is where the real work happens — not just in understanding what you've been through, but in helping your nervous system finally catch up to what your mind already knows.

I bring a particular kind of presence to this work — calm, grounded, and genuinely unshakeable. Not because the hard stuff doesn't land, but because it doesn't destabilize me. For clients carrying trauma, that steadiness matters more than almost anything else. You need someone who can hold the full weight of what you bring in without flinching — and keep showing up the same way, session after session.

What we build together goes beyond the therapy room. Complex relationship patterns, grief, and the slow erosion of self-confidence are connected — shaped by the same experiences, reinforcing the same conclusions about who you are and what you deserve. We'll trace those connections, understand what your nervous system has been protecting, and build something more sustainable than simply getting through the day.

People come to therapy carrying all kinds of things. A teenager navigating identity and anxiety. An adult whose depression has become the background noise of daily life. An older adult sitting with grief, transition, and questions about meaning and purpose. I work across all of it — with teens, adults, and older adults — and I bring the same grounded, genuine investment to every person who walks through the door.

What I offer isn't just clinical range, though I have that. It's the perspective that comes from over a decade working across outpatient, intensive outpatient, and inpatient settings, serving as a clinical director, supervising clinicians toward licensure, and training the next generation of therapists at universities across Arizona. That kind of career doesn't just build skill. It builds a clinician who has seen enough to know that the most important thing in the room is never the framework — it's the relationship.

I'm an Arizona native, down-to-earth, and genuinely easy to be around. I value humor and believe lightheartedness has a real place in the therapy room — not as a way of avoiding the hard stuff, but as a reminder that healing doesn't have to feel relentlessly heavy. I work with people navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, co-occurring conditions, and complex life transitions, and I meet all of it with warmth, steadiness, and real clinical depth.

What I'm ultimately working toward with every client is simple: a better relationship with yourself and the people around you. More clarity. More purpose. A life that feels more like yours. Whether you're just beginning to understand what you're carrying or you've been at this work for years, I'll help you build something from there.

Even when we try to move forward, the effects of trauma can continue to influence how we feel and respond. Many of the people I work with have already tried to move ahead. They've talked about what happened, understood it intellectually, & still found themselves back in the same patterns, the same responses, the same exhaustion. If that sounds familiar, you're not failing at healing. You may only need a different kind of help. A significant part of what I do involves helping clients understand their own nervous system — why it responds the way it does, what it's been protecting, and how to work with it rather than against it. This isn't abstract. It's practical, specific, and often the missing piece for people who have done a lot of work but still feel stuck at a level they can't quite reach through insight alone.

I specialize in first responders and healthcare professionals who carry the particular weight of chronic crisis exposure — people who understand resilience professionally but are navigating what it costs them. I take the responsibility of trauma work seriously — more seriously, perhaps, than most. I stay current with research, I think carefully about the ethics of this work, and I pay close attention to where each client is in their healing journey before taking the next step.

That deliberateness isn't caution for its own sake. It's respect — for the complexity of trauma, for the courage it takes to address it, and for the person sitting across from me.

My presence in sessions is quiet and attentive. I notice things. I offer feedback and suggestions carefully .My approach adapts as you grow — attending to your history, your relationships, and the patterns that have formed around your experiences. We'll build emotional awareness, develop practical tools, and work toward something genuinely sustainable.

I’m Sarah, a therapist who helps people slow down, listen to their bodies, and reconnect with parts of themselves that have felt overlooked or misunderstood. My approach is warm, gentle, and trauma-informed, drawing from CBT, DBT, and body-based techniques. I especially enjoy working with neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ clients, those rebuilding trust in themselves and others. I aim to create a space that feels emotionally safe, shame-free, and even sprinkled with humor - where we can both sit in discomfort and find lightness along the way.

I have a Master's degree in Social Work and have worked for many years in Florida and Arizona helping adults with depression, anxiety, relationship issues, healing from PTSD trauma and addictions.

Dr. Paul Okoronkwo is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with 5 years of experience in treating adolescents and adults with depression, anxiety, panic disorder, ADHD, insomnia, and mood disorders. He has worked in multiple mental health hospitals and healthcare facilities since 2015. He received his master's and doctoral de­grees from Walden University.