Sarah Anderson

When Sarah Anderson started her master's program in counseling, she had no intention of ending up in private practice. She was going into crisis work — the front lines, the emergency rooms, the psychiatric units where nobody goes unless they have to. That was where she felt called. Sixteen years later, she's built something different: a private practice rooted in the same urgency and directness that defined her crisis work, but focused on the people who are high-functioning on the outside and quietly overwhelmed on the inside. The Athlete: Sarah has played competitive basketball for nearly 30 years, including at the Division I level, and continues to compete and coach a high-level circuit team. She understands the mental demands of performance: pressure, perfectionism, injury recovery, identity tied to athletic achievement, and the disorienting transition out of competitive sport. When she talks to an athlete about performance anxiety or post-career identity crisis, she speaks from experience. The Law Enforcement & Military Background: Sarah spent five years in law enforcement and has extensive experience supporting military families, including high-intensity Special Operations personnel. She understands the culture: the stoicism, the reluctance to ask for help, the adrenaline dependency, the weight of life-and-death responsibility. She doesn't ask first responders to talk about their feelings. She meets them in their language. The Crisis Clinician: Before private practice, Sarah spent over a decade in crisis settings including psychiatric hospitals, substance abuse treatment centers, Employee Assistance Programs. She has seen the full spectrum of human struggle. Nothing shocks her. This creates an environment of radical safety for clients who have been told they are "too much." The Mother: Sarah is a single mother of three. She knows firsthand the impossible math of trying to be everything to everyone while still holding yourself together. When she works with women navigating motherhood, marriage, postpartum challenges, or divorce, she brings that lived understanding into the room.