Cara Sarelli
Are You Ready to Anchor Yourself? When life delivers a major medical diagnosis, a devastating loss, or the relentless buzz of trauma and anxiety, the effects can be destabilizing.
I help people get unstuck, to identify their values, to draw boundaries, and move forward from surviving to thriving.
I provide specialized online psychotherapy to adults across California, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington who are ready to stop just surviving and start reclaiming their lives. My approach centers on controlling what is controllable. Together, we identify practical, clear steps you can take right now to find clarity, process deep-seated emotional pain, and restore your confidence.
First session
As a licensed clinical social worker, my focus is on meeting you where you are. Our first session will be one where we will get to know each other. This will include a basic assessment so that I can learn about your situation, your support, your strengths and any barriers you may be experiencing. Whether this is your first therapy session in your life or you have had years of therapy before, I will immediately provide a safe space and work at a pace that feels comfortable for you to build trust. Therapy is a partnership and I encourage all clients to try for at least two sessions to see if we are a good team, and then to continue with weekly sessions for at least four-to-six weeks. This commitment is so that we can get to know each other to establish our starting point and collaborate to identify your therapeutic goals.. If you have never had therapy before, the first session is a huge step and can feel like a lot, but my approach is warm, calm, gentle and non-judgmental.
Strengths
How We Work Together I bridge compassionate holding spaces with evidence-backed clinical skill-building. Neuroscience & Skill Building: Using practical CBT and DBT tools, we focus on nervous system regulation, impulse control, and sustainable coping strategies. Reframing Your Narrative: We address painful chapters through Narrative and Reality Therapy, focusing on your inherent resilience and what is possible in the present. Faith & Spirituality: When desired, we can seamlessly integrate your Christian faith and personal spiritual values into your therapeutic process. Primary Areas of Practice Trauma & PTSD Care: Moving through traumatic memory and physical overwhelm with grounded, trauma-informed care. Grief, Bereavement & Loss: Safe, structured space to carry and integrate heavy life transitions. Depression & Anxiety Management: Quieting mental static and rebuilding daily momentum. Chronic Illness Adaptation: Managing the grief, stress, and lifestyle shifts that come with medical changes. Caregiver & First Responder Support: Essential boundary-setting and emotional recovery for frontline workers, clinicians, and those caring for family members facing illness or addiction.
Ideal clients
I have worked with people of all ages from newborns to late adulthood in clinical settings and in my private practice, specialize in seeing adults ages 18-64. I enjoy helping my clients move through transitions in life, whether they are applying to or adjusting to college, getting married, having children, changing careers, adjusting to living with a new chronic illness, grieving the loss of a loved one or managing the challenges of balancing priorities in mid-life.
Treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use many forms of CBT including mindfulness-based reflections and meditation, cognitive restructuring, journaling and narrative therapy to help clients identify detrimental thought patterns and where they came from, and to reshape and reframe thoughts over time for an improved outlook.
Trauma-Informed Care
I have advanced specialized training in trauma-informed clinical practice. My work in grounded in an understanding of trauma and how it affects our minds and bodies. I help survivors of child and adult trauma to understand themselves and the effects of trauma. Understanding brings growth, and over time, clients can find inner strength and resolve and move from surviving to thriving.
Grief Therapy
I have completed training as an Advanced Grief Specialist. I help process feelings of loss and in particular am informed about sudden traumatic loss. Grief is a process and I feel privileged to be able to help those navigate through their own personal grief journeys.
Christian Counseling
For assisting my Christian clients, I enjoy incorporating prayer and meditation methods, and Biblical perspectives to strengthen faith and well-being.
Psychoeducation
I enjoy teaching principles of neuroscience and psychology in ways that make them easy to understand. Knowledge can be extremely empowering. Topics I have explored in therapy that have been profoundly impactful of my clients have been learning about attachment styles, the neuroscience behind stress and resilience, positive psychology, and the effects of trauma and grief on the mind and body.
Location
Virtual sessions