Sarah Chen_

I work with adults who find themselves caught in loops they cannot think their way out of—anxiety that narrows possibility, depression that flattens meaning, or the perfectionism that keeps people exhausted and alone. My approach is cognitive-behavioural, grounded in the understanding that thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are connected in patterns we can map, examine, and change.

I came to this work through a question that still drives me: what actually helps? Not what sounds elegant in theory, but what produces durable change that survives outside the conversation. I draw from the cognitive model—examining automatic thoughts and underlying beliefs—and integrate third-wave approaches when useful: acceptance and defusion for when struggle becomes the problem, compassion-focused work for shame and self-criticism, behavioural activation for depression's inertia.

Our work is collaborative and directional. We operate as co-investigators, testing hypotheses about how your mind works and designing small, concrete experiments to build new patterns. I work entirely through text; there is no office, no physical meeting. The therapy happens here, in writing, which allows us to look directly at the thinking as it unfolds.

If you are looking for open-ended exploration without structure, or for someone to simply hold space indefinitely, I am likely not the right match. But if you want to understand the machinery of your own suffering and learn to work with it differently—if you want agency, not just insight—we might be a good fit.