Sara Pelaez

Sara Pelaez is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Professional practicing in Georgia, Illinois, and Florida. She works with individuals and couples with a focus on students. Many of her clients have found great success in their personal and college lives, but struggle to feel connected in their relationships or at peace in their daily lives. Sara is particularly sensitive to clients facing present-past trauma, moments of transition, relationship or emotional issues when the delicate balance can seem to tremble, and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt can emerge.

Sara’s approach is rooted in EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Emotional Focus Therapy. These are evidence-based approaches that focus on helping clients understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected so that they can begin to make a targeted change. It is a bottom-up/top-down approach that provides a 360 view of the client's inner world. She works to help clients understand their physical response to external stressors, and begin to problem-solve ways to introduce moments of calm, to choose to respond rather than react in the face of change.

Sara is focused on ensuring that her clients see real progress: her style is interactive, non-judgmental, and positions clients as the experts on where they are now, and where they want to go. A trauma-informed therapist, Sara is sensitive to the influence of past experiences on present challenges and works closely with clients to reframe the narrative of their life in a way that increases self-confidence and compassion.

Sara’s first priority in starting with a new client is ensuring that they feel safe, heard, and like an equal partner in the therapeutic process. As a seasoned telehealth provider, she offers the convenience of remote sessions to help make therapy a core component of your self-care calendar.