Sara Wilper LCSW, LSCSW, MSW

Family pain runs deep because it started early. Maybe you grew up walking on eggshells, or you are the one who finally set a boundary and now carry guilt for it. Estrangement, a dysfunctional family, a parent you love and cannot be close to. I help you make sense of these relationships, grieve what they were not and decide what you want them to be now, without anyone telling you the right answer.

Grief is love with nowhere to go, and it rarely follows the tidy stages people expect. It can arrive months after the loss, hit in waves and show up around losses others do not name, like a pet, a pregnancy or an estranged parent. As a certified grief educator trained by David Kessler, I will sit with your grief without rushing it, and help you carry it in a way that lets you live alongside it.

When you have lived through something terrifying, your nervous system can stay stuck on high alert long after the danger is gone. You might have flashbacks, trouble sleeping or a sense of bracing that never quite lets up. I use EMDR to help your brain and body register that the threat has passed, so you can stop reliving it and start feeling safe in your own life again.

EMDR is at the heart of how I work with trauma. I have used it for years with adults whose grief or trauma stayed stuck no matter how much they talked it through. Talk therapy builds understanding, but EMDR reaches the place where the body still holds the fear. I use it to help your brain register that the danger has passed, so the past stops running your present. Most of my clients notice real shifts within the first month.

CBT is one of the tools I bring alongside deeper trauma work. Our thoughts, feelings and actions are linked, and old beliefs like "I am not safe" or "it was my fault" can quietly shape your whole life. I help you notice those patterns and gently test them against what is true now. Paired with EMDR and mindfulness, CBT gives you practical skills you can use between sessions, not only insight to think about.

Trauma has been my focus for more than 25 years. I am trained to work with single-event trauma and the deeper, layered kind that builds over years, often starting in childhood. I know how to move at your pace, build safety first and use proven tools like EMDR so the work never overwhelms you. My clients come in feeling stuck and braced, and leave feeling steadier, more themselves and more at home in their own lives.