About Sara
Sara Dabney is a licensed clinical social worker with five years of practice. She combines practical therapy methods with a straightforward, down-to-earth style. Sara aims to make therapy feel like a real conversation where people can talk about what matters most to them.
She trained at the University of South Florida, completing a Master of Social Work degree and coursework focused on child maltreatment. She also participated in graduate research on HIV and post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Background and approach
Sara began her professional journey teaching yoga and earned a massage therapy license in 2014, which shaped her interest in mind-body connections. Sara draws from cognitive behavioral tools and mindfulness skills to help people notice unhelpful thinking and try small, doable changes.
She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas and a client-centered approach to help people clarify values and make choices that match those values. Motivational interviewing techniques are used when people feel stuck and want to find motivation to change.
Her areas of focus include stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, self-esteem, addictions, relationship and intimacy-related concerns, grief, parenting and coping with life changes. She also works with people dealing with body image, chronic illness, adoption and foster care issues, and alternative sex cultures among other topics. Sara sees people in Florida and offers sessions in English.
She describes therapy as a collaborative process and invites people to start by sharing what they hope to change.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Sara often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help people clarify what matters to them and take small, value-driven steps. ACT focuses on accepting difficult thoughts while committing to actions that fit a person’s values, which can help with anxiety, depression and life transitions.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is another part of her work and involves identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing new behaviors. CBT is practical and skill-based, and it helps with worry, low mood and coping strategies.
Sara also brings mindfulness techniques into sessions to help people notice thoughts and bodily sensations without getting swept away by them. These practices can support stress reduction and increase present-moment awareness.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist and client collaborate to choose methods that match the client’s goals, preferences and day-to-day life. Plans are adjusted as progress is made and new priorities emerge.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video is useful for fuller conversations and exercises, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits quick check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and different routines.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English