Children, Adolescents, Young Adults and Adult Counseling | Orlando

Bio

Sarah is a Mental Health Counselor Student Intern at Total Life Counseling Center. She has a passion for helping and connecting with people that has been cultivated through years of personal, educational and professional experiences. Some of the biggest influences in developing Sarah’s determination to positively impact those in need stem from her Christian faith, experience immersing herself in different cultures and being a wife and mother.

Background

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sarah is the daughter of a Christian Pastor and neonatal doctor, so the concept of living a life of service to others was instilled in her at a very young age. Throughout her childhood, she moved various times within Brazil — living in Rio, Cuiaba and Salvador — before immigrating to Florida as a teenager.

Sarah began her postsecondary education at Dallas Baptist University, where she had various opportunities to travel abroad and not only broaden her horizons but also have experiences that helped her grow personally and professionally, such as serving as a research assistant in Ireland during a semester abroad or providing medical aid in Jamaica and Haiti. She then transferred to the University of South Florida, where she finished her undergraduate studies, majoring in biology with a minor in psychology. Currently, she is nearing completion of the clinical mental health counseling graduate program at Grand Canyon University.

Professionally, Sarah has a wide variety of experience within the medical and faith-based fields, including serving as a medical scribe and clinical information specialist for a variety of clinics, as well as an administrator and director of various ministries at her local church.
As a mother and wife, Sarah spends most of her personal time with her close-knit immediate and extended family. She also enjoys watching her favorite reality television shows, eating amazing food and traveling.

Personal Approach

Empathy is at the core of Sarah’s counseling approach. She believes that everyone has their own personal experience and only by developing an understanding of that experience, followed by having empathy for that experience, can anyone help.
Through this approach, Sarah is able to treat each person in a unique and personalized way by tailoring a variety of evidence-based techniques that would be most effective for that individual.

Her passion for helping and connecting with people through empathy is key to building genuine rapport as a counselor. That rapport ultimately helps her understand each client’s individual needs and guides the process she develops for her clients to work toward achieving their life-change goals.

To achieve those goals, however, Sarah believes that counselors need to have an approach that focuses on empathy, trust-building, effective communication, collaboration and having a positive attitude throughout the process. These elements, within the use of evidence-based interventions and other modalities, are the most effective ways to help people.

Areas of Specialties

• Childhood and adolescent disorders
• Anxiety
• Depression

Credentials

• Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Psychology,
  University of South Florida. Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Grand Canyon University (currently enrolled)
• Fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish