Sarah Spaltro

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and clinical art therapist with a warm, curious, and deeply relational style. I grew up across different cultures and understand firsthand that identity, family, relationships, and belonging can be complicated. That perspective has shaped the way I listen: I’m interested not only in what is happening, but in the experiences and relationships that have shaped how you came to understand yourself and the world around you.

I work with adolescents, adults, and families navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship and family difficulties, identity, life transitions, and periods of feeling stuck or disconnected. My background in clinical art therapy also gives us another way to explore experiences that may be difficult to put into words, although you never need to be artistic—or make art at all—to work with me.

Most importantly, I want therapy to feel like a place where you can be genuinely known while also moving toward meaningful change.

My approach is relational, collaborative, and tailored to the person or family in front of me. I draw from family systems, attachment-based, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and experiential approaches, while integrating art therapy when it feels useful and comfortable for you. Art is never a requirement.

I look beyond symptoms to understand the patterns, relationships, experiences, and strengths that may be shaping what is happening now. With adolescents and families, I am particularly interested in understanding the young person within the larger family system rather than simply identifying one person as “the problem.” With adults, I help clients explore recurring patterns, identity, relationships, life transitions, and the experiences that may be keeping them stuck.

Therapy with me has room for curiosity and creativity, but it also has direction. Together, we identify what brought you to therapy, develop a clearer understanding of what is happening, and work toward meaningful changes that can carry into life outside the therapy room.

Our first session is an opportunity for me to begin understanding you beyond a diagnosis or a checklist of symptoms. I’ll want to know what brought you to therapy, what feels most important right now, what you have already tried, and what you hope might be different as a result of our work together.

I tend to be curious and collaborative rather than rigid. You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what to say or where to begin. Depending on your needs and comfort level, our work may include conversation, reflection, experiential exercises, or art therapy. If you are coming as a family, I may also use structured activities that allow me to observe how you communicate and interact together.

By the end of our early sessions, my goal is for us to have a clearer understanding of what we are working on and why. Therapy can evolve organically, but it should not feel like an indefinite series of conversations without direction.