Amy Sargent LMFT

I am glad that you are pursuing counseling for you or a loved one. Therapy can be an investment in your emotional health, your relationships and can help you move from a place where you feel like you're barely surviving life to a place where you are thriving and loving life.

Everyone has struggles, pain, difficulties or challenging issues in life. Nobody is perfect, so nobody deals with those things perfectly. Therapy is a place where you can talk about your life struggles with someone who is educated, experienced and trained to effectively explore them with you. Through the counseling process you will come to know yourself more completely, and become better able to determine and live in the values and beliefs which help you make life decisions. A therapist is your companion and guide on that journey of self-discovery and healing.

Sometimes life struggles seem small enough that we feel like we should just be able to get over it and don't know how. Other times we feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of our problems and don't know where to start or how to recover. If you feel like you're at a loss for what to do, feel like you need some assistance dealing with challenges, need encouragement on your healing journey, or if you could use support while trying to implement life changes, perhaps therapy is a good place for you.

It can feel like a difficult task to know where to look, who to call or how to go about finding a counselor or psychotherapist who would be right for you. I hope this information can make that process a little easier for you.

Prior to working in Private Practice, I worked in many settings to become experienced with many different populations. Some of these positions were working as a counselor for Catholic Charities CCYO, with the County of San Mateo, at the Ravenswood School District, Taft Elementary School and some brief crisis counseling at Megan Furth Academy in San Francisco. A previous career in ministry which included helping people with life and faith struggles is what propelled me to enter the field of counseling as a career.

I have a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University and a Master of Theology degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Though I am a Christian, I have no expectations my clients must be, which is why I choose not to call myself a Christian Counselor. If you are interested in integrating Christianity in your therapy please be sure to let me know. If you are not, please know that I affirm spirituality as an important part of life and deeply respect others' values, perspectives and faith though they may be different from my own.

Therapists generally work under certain theories that frame how to identify and treat certain disorders, struggles or problem areas for clients. I work primarily from a Psychodynamic orientation. Some issues require different approaches and I am comfortable with and use other orientations to augment my work. A Psychodynamic approach views our past relationships and experiences as significantly impacting the person we are today. This also means those things can contribute to our current struggles/issues. My approach is to help you figure out what from your past might be affecting the present, so you can change unhealthy habits or ways of relating to others. Consulting with a professional therapist can give you tools to move beyond survival to a place where you're thriving.