holistic, embodied + relatable therapy

virtual 1:1 sessions available across Ontario

Does any of this sound familiar?

❈ 02 ❈

Perfectionism and people pleasing behaviours are taking a toll on your well-being. You are a high achiever, always ‘doing’ and taking on more. You are always putting the needs of others before your own. And yet, you continue to feel like you’re ‘not enough’. This has left you feeling depleted and burnt out.

You want to feel connected to your own self-worth, effectively communicate your needs and boundaries, and know how to listen to your body’s cues.

❈ 01 ❈

You are navigating a difficult life transition and feeling overwhelmed by fear, sadness, and grief. Perhaps a career change, end of a relationship, loss of a loved one, moving to a new city, entering a new stage of life. You are feeling lost and unsure of how to navigate this stage of your life.

You are seeking support to move through these transitions with greater ease, acceptance, and grace, while feeling connected to your self and deeply held values.

❈ 03 ❈

You are aware that there are emotional wounds keeping you stuck in the past, negatively impacting your relationships and self-worth. You intellectually understand the source of your pain, yet you continue to feel distressed by past events and cope in ways that are no longer serving you.

You want to reduce the distress associated with upsetting past events so that you can feel lighter and show up more openly and freely in your life.

❈ 04 ❈

You have tried talk therapy and you don’t want to spend hours repeating details of past events to find yourself still feeling stuck. You want to try evidence-based techniques like EMDR, IFS, somatic and mindfulness-based therapeutic approaches. 

You are ready to heal your emotional wounds, let go of limiting beliefs, resolve inner conflicts, and feel safe in your body so you can move bravely into your future instead of feeling stuck in your past.

Psychotherapy, Therapy, Psychedelic Integration, EMDR, Breathwork

Offerings

  • 1:1 sessions to support you to cultivate self-awareness, identify patterns + habits, deepen your relationship to yourself and others, gain tools to effectively manage stress and difficult emotions, shift patterns to live a life in alignment with your personal values, more connected to your body, mind and spirit.

    I utilize a holistic and integrative approach, acknowledging the interconnected layers of your being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. As such, my therapeutic approach goes beyond simply talking, but also involves experiential exercises to support emotional processing, such as, meditation, mindful movement, breath work, expressive arts, IFS, EMDR, somatic awareness, embracing the power of the body and senses in the healing process to support deeper self-exploration and transformation.

  • Eye Movement Desensitization + Reprocessing (EMDR) is an extensively researched form of therapy, which is effective in treating symptoms of PTSD and trauma. It operates from the premise that negative beliefs, feelings, and behaviours are the result of unprocessed memories.

    In session, clients are asked to focus on a specific traumatic memory with attention given to the negative image, belief, and body sensations related to this memory. Clients are then asked to focus on a positive belief that would indicate the issues was resolved. While focusing on the distressing memory, the therapist will begin sets of side-to-side eye movements or tapping and the client will be guided to notice what comes to mind after each set. Experiences include shifts in insight or changes in images, feelings, or beliefs regarding the past event, including a reduction of distress associated with the memory.

  • While I cannot condone the use of illegal substances as a regulated professional in Ontario, I do operate from a harm reduction approach. I am passionate about providing education and creating a safe space for individuals to openly explore their intentions, expectations, and concerns surrounding these medicines. It is my hope that this will support others to navigate these experiences with greater intention, care, and respect in order to mitigate risks and maximize potential benefits.

    Integration is essential to support the weaving of insights gained from non-ordinary states of consciousness into one's life in a meaningful and embodied way. This is how we can take these experiences to change our life in the present moment. This process may include exploration of themes, emotions or challenges arisen during the experience.

  • Breathwave is a gentle, trauma-sensitive + ceremonial style of conscious connected breathwork that can produce altered states of consciousness, allowing deeper access to our physical, emotional, and energetic bodies. This practice can support: integrating and processing emotional experiences, regulating the nervous system, expanding one’s neural potentiality for wholeness, deepening connection to ourselves and the web of life.

    Our breathing is a direct reflection of our relationship with life. Breathing is generally limited and unconscious; in fact, the average person only accesses 20 - 30% of their breathing capacity. Conscious awareness of our breathing can support increasing our openness + aliveness in life, supporting personal growth, more balanced relationships, and optimal health.

Sarah Cifuentes

MSW RSW | Registered Social Worker | Psychotherapist | Human, being.

I am passionate about a holistic and embodied approach to mental health care - one that honours the entire person and all aspects of being: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. I acknowledge that our bodies hold the entirety of our life experience, and therefore must be included in the healing process.

My practice is rooted in the belief that within every person exists a wellspring — a source of wisdom, creativity, and innate capacity for healing. 

I specialize in creating a healing space to support my clients to pause, slow down, reconnect with their breath and learn the language of their body to reclaim the wisdom that exists within their bones.

I integrate a variety of evidence-based and holistic tools to support my clients to transmute their pain into peace, create a more loving and accepting relationship with all parts of themselves, and live an embodied, meaningful life in alignment with their values.

An invitation to pause

release your jaw, relax your shoulders down your back, inhale, feel your lungs expand, follow with an even longer exhale, letting go

Allowing each exhale to drop you deeper into yourself

Maybe there are emotional wounds from the past that are keeping you stuck, or you are feeling overwhelmed in the middle of a challenging life transition, navigating heartbreak, in a cycle of death and rebirth, unsure of where to go from here.

I can help.

I am passionate about empowering you to reconnect with your own inner wisdom and gifts — in order to live in deeper connection with your Self, other humans, and the natural world.

  • Individual Psychotherapy

    1:1 sessions to support you to cultivate self-awareness, identify patterns + habits, deepen your relationship to yourself and others, gain tools to effectively manage stress and difficult emotions, shift patterns to live a life in alignment with your personal values, more connected to your body, mind and spirit.

    I utilize a holistic and integrative approach, acknowledging the interconnected layers of your being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. As such, my therapeutic approach goes beyond simply talking, but also involves experiential exercises to support emotional processing, such as, meditation, mindful movement, breath work, expressive arts, IFS, EMDR, somatic awareness, embracing the power of the body and senses in the healing process to support deeper self-exploration and transformation.

  • Conscious Connected Breathwork (Breathwave)

    Breathwave is a gentle, trauma-sensitive + ceremonial style of conscious connected breathwork that can produce altered states of consciousness, allowing deeper access to our physical, emotional, and energetic bodies. This practice can support: integrating and processing emotional experiences, regulating the nervous system, expanding one’s neural potentiality for wholeness, deepening connection to ourselves and the web of life.

    Our breathing is a direct reflection of our relationship with life. Breathing is generally limited and unconscious; in fact, the average person only accesses 20 - 30% of their breathing capacity. Conscious awareness of our breathing can support increasing our openness + aliveness in life, supporting personal growth, more balanced relationships, and optimal health.

  • Psychedelic Integration Support

    While I cannot condone the use of illegal substances as a regulated professional in Ontario, I do operate from a harm reduction approach. I am passionate about providing education and creating a safe space for individuals to openly explore their intentions, expectations, and concerns surrounding these medicines. It is my hope that this will support others to navigate these experiences with greater intention, care, and respect in order to mitigate risks and maximize potential benefits.

    Integration is essential to support the weaving of insights gained from non-ordinary states of consciousness into one's life in a meaningful and embodied way. This is how we can take these experiences to change our life in the present moment. This process may include exploration of themes, emotions or challenges arisen during the experience.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”

— Albert Camus