Sarah Jamieson
Clinical Counsellor & Psychotherapist
Thank you for taking the time to read a bit about me and my work.
I hope what I have written below helps you get a better sense of me, but if it leaves you with questions, please email me or book a free 20-minute video call.
Who do I work with?
I work with a wide range of people (both for individual and relationship counselling), but I specialize in chronic pain and trauma.
I came to this work through my own experience with chronic pain. After yoga and meditation were helpful for me, I was inspired to share the benefits of these practices with others, so I became a yoga teacher, specializing in the therapeutic application of yoga for pain. Through this work, I became more aware that many people living with persistent pain also struggled with (and were often further limited by) mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, grief, anger, relationship difficulties, and unresolved trauma. The problem, as I learned from the people I worked with, was that it was hard to find a mental health practitioner who understood pain well enough to work with the complexity of their challenges.
I really understand pain—the lived experience, the science, the complexity, the need for an approach that takes the whole person into account. So, I completed a graduate degree in Counselling Psychology, got licensed as a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), and became a mental health professional who really understands pain.
My graduate research focused on chronic pain recovery. It deepened my understanding of how people who are struggling with pain come to live richer and more fulfilling lives, and it led me to pursue additional training in newer psychological approaches to working with pain: Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy (EAET). If you are interested in my research, you can read more about it here: www.chronicpainrecovery.ca
I have a particular interest in exploring the connection between chronic pain (and other chronic health challenges) and underlying trauma. Exploring this connection often involves looking at developmental trauma (things that happened when we were growing up) and how our early relationships shaped both our understanding of ourselves and how we relate to others.
I’ve written more about how I work with pain in a piece that you can read here: How Therapy Can Help Chronic Pain
Who else do I work with?
Many people come to me because of my experience supporting those living with pain and other chronic health challenges, such as ME/CFS and Long COVID. But helping with ongoing health challenges often means working with many different parts of a person’s life. Some of the other areas I work in, many of which have come about through my work with pain, include:
- Trauma – ranging from single incident (motor vehicle accident) to more complex (developmental trauma, CPSTD)
- Fear and anxiety
- Chronic shame and self-criticism
- Loss and grief
- Boundaries and communication
- Relationship challenges – across all forms of relationship
- Life transitions
- Perimenopause and menopause
- Breast cancer
- Difficulties with sleep
- Family of origin relationships
I also have experience working with neurodiversity. Particularly for those who come to understand their neurodiversity later in life, there can be a legacy of chronic shame and self-criticism related to not having been able to do the things expected of us in a world structured for neurotypical folks. In this work, I often focus on celebrating the strengths of diversity while identifying practical ways to navigate a neurotypical world.
How do I work? (Or what happens in therapy?)
As we begin, I will meet you with curiosity about what brought you to therapy and what you imagine things might look like if therapy were to be helpful. This understanding provides a focus for our work together. A great question to reflect on as you begin therapy is: How will I know if therapy has been helpful?
While healing and personal growth can come about in surprising and unexpected ways, clarity and intentionality can support more purposeful and effective work.
I focus on embodied and experiential work. You could think of embodied as meaning the opposite of being “stuck in your head.” You’re expanding your awareness to include the felt experience of the body, such as sensory, emotional, and physical experiences. And in some ways, experiential means the same thing. Experiential therapy focuses on embodied, present-moment experiences. We focus on growing your capacity to stay present and regulated through a broader range of experiences, which allows you to access a deeper sturdiness in the face of life’s challenges.
But sometimes it takes time to get to this kind of work. If the idea of being asked, “What do you notice in your body?” when you speak about something that challenges you, makes you feel confused, and maybe even think that the person asking the question is a bit crazy, you are not alone. Many of us learned to disconnect from our embodied experience to survive really hard and painful things, so despite my professed love of more embodied or somatic work, we might not start there because for many people, the body isn’t a safe place – especially in the face of pain and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. It is important to honour the wisdom of what has been hidden and move into more embodied experiences in a slow and gentle way.