About Sara
Sara Figueroa is a licensed clinical social worker with 14 years of experience. She practices as an LCSW and brings experience from a range of social work settings. Sara writes and talks plainly with people who are anxious, grieving, or facing big life changes.
Her background includes work in child welfare advocacy, substance use support, crisis intervention, sexual assault response advocacy, and hospice and grief counseling. She has worked with people from many cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, including those in the LGBT community.
Background and approach
That variety shaped a practical, down-to-earth way of helping. In sessions she focuses on meeting people where they are. She avoids judgment and helps clients name what matters most.
Together they set goals and build a plan that fits each person’s life. Sara uses a mix of approaches chosen for each client. She draws on client-centered ideas to follow the person's lead.
She uses cognitive-behavioral techniques to identify thoughts and habits that keep problems going. Motivational interviewing and solution-focused steps help people find momentum and small changes that make a difference. People who come to her often seek help for stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, relationship struggles, grief, parenting strain, and self-esteem concerns.
She also addresses issues like attachment struggles, caregiving stress, and coping after loss. Her style is practical, collaborative, and steady.
Practical approaches you can use online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on what matters most to the person in the room. The therapist listens closely and follows the client’s lead to build trust and clarify goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people spot unhelpful thoughts and habits and replace them with clearer, more useful ways of thinking and acting. Motivational Interviewing helps when someone feels stuck or unsure about change by drawing out their own reasons for taking steps forward.Finding the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before. Together they try methods that fit the person’s needs and adjust them as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy fit into busy lives. Video can be useful for deeper conversations and reading nonverbal cues. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging are useful for quick updates, brief coaching, or when writing feels easier than speaking. These options let people keep continuity of care across locations and schedules.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Illinois, Wisconsin
- Languages
- English