Sara Turner

Hello! My name is Sara. My family and I are grateful to live, work, and play in the traditional, unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation, now known as the Comox Valley. I am a mother, partner, sister, daughter, and friend.

I am also a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC), primarily practicing as a Relational Somatic Psychotherapist. I also hold a Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate (PATGC) from Vancouver Island University and a Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) certificate from the Psychedelic Somatic Institute. I am humbled by the courage and heart of my own healing journey and that of my clients.

It’s important to me to consider the social, cultural, and systemic contexts that shape our lives, rather than locating distress solely within the individual. I believe our experiences need to be understood within the relationships, families, communities, and systems we live within.

Because our wounding happens in relationship, or in the absence of supportive and attuned relationship, I believe healing also needs to happen in relationship. My role is not to direct your healing, but to create a safe, supportive relationship where you can begin to bring what has been stuck, incomplete, or held alone, into connection. Together, we can explore what your nervous system has learned to do to survive and allow what else might be possible for you, to emerge.

While PSIP can be particularly relevant and beneficial for people with complex or developmental trauma, dissociation, relational wounding, or patterns that have remained intact despite years of insight-oriented therapy, I also think it’s not for everyone.

PSIP can bring us into contact with experiences that have been outside our conscious awareness and bring them to the surface. This can be destabilizing, confronting, and challenging at times. I therefore place a high value on safety, preparation, pacing, and having appropriate resources and support in place. During intake, we would evaluate whether there are enough supports and stability in your life to make it safe enough as well as beneficial to do this work.

My own healing journey has helped me understand this work from the inside. I have always had a strong capacity for self-reliance and independence, and I found that I could move through the intensity of this therapeutic work by relying on these familiar strengths. But when I encountered the pain and terror stored from my early childhood—when I really needed help—I began the vulnerable and rewarding process of receiving the support I needed then, in present time.

I still have my self-reliance, and I don't think I need to get rid of it. What has changed is that I have more choice. I have developed greater flexibility within my nervous system and a greater capacity to be vulnerable, turn toward relationship, and receive support when I need it. This has expanded my capacity to feel more fully alive and live into connection.

Perhaps your ways of coping and managing are both helping in the short term and limiting you from stepping into a fuller life, aligned with your soul and your hearts desires. I’m here to explore this with you.