Sarah De Pasquale is a qualified counsellor, clinical supervisor, and behaviour support practitioner who established her private practice in 2011. With over 14 years of experience supporting individuals and families, Sarah provides compassionate, evidence-informed care for people navigating life’s challenges, emotional distress, and complex personal experiences.
Sarah works with individuals experiencing concerns related to mental health, alcohol and other drug use, grief and loss, emotional wellbeing, identity exploration, trauma, and significant life transitions. She has a particular interest in supporting people impacted by stigma, substance use, complex presentations, and forensic histories, offering a respectful and non-judgemental therapeutic space.
Her approach is person-centred, trauma-informed, and integrative, recognising that every person’s story, strengths, and therapeutic goals are unique. Sarah is committed to creating a safe, confidential, and supportive environment where clients feel genuinely heard, understood, and empowered to move toward meaningful and sustainable change.
In addition to working with adults, Sarah has experience supporting children and families through a Child-Centred Play Therapy framework, helping children explore emotions, build resilience, and strengthen emotional regulation through developmentally appropriate therapeutic support.
Sarah also offers clinical supervision to counsellors and emerging practitioners, providing a reflective, collaborative, and supportive space for professional growth, ethical practice, and skill development.
Flexible appointments are available via Telehealth and in-home support.
Qualifications
- Master of Counselling
- Postgraduate Certificate in Positive Behaviour Support
- Postgraduate Certificate in Counselling & Psychotherapy
- Postgraduate Certificate in Child Centered Play Therapy
- Diploma of Mental Health
- Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs
- Diploma of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Choosing the right counsellor or supervisor is an important step. Sarah De Pasquale brings over a decade of experience, combining professional expertise with genuine warmth, empathy, and authenticity.
Sarah offers a safe, respectful, and non-judgmental space where you can feel truly heard and supported. Her person-centred and integrative approach means every session is tailored to your unique needs—whether you’re seeking personal support through counselling or professional growth through supervision.
With extensive experience across mental health, substance use, trauma, and complex presentations, Sarah works alongside individuals and practitioners with care, insight, and practical guidance. She is committed to helping clients create meaningful change, and supporting supervisees to grow in confidence, skill, and ethical practice.
Known for her down-to-earth and compassionate style, Sarah builds strong, collaborative relationships that foster trust, reflection, and lasting growth.
Sarah De Pasquale is a compassionate Counsellor and Play Therapist who supports children, adolescents, adults, and families to navigate life’s challenges with warmth, understanding, and evidence-informed care. Sarah is passionate about creating a safe, supportive space where people feel heard, understood, and empowered to move toward meaningful change.
Sarah offers counselling and psychotherapy for a range of concerns, including anxiety, stress, emotional regulation difficulties, trauma, grief and loss, self-esteem, life transitions, parenting challenges, relationship difficulties, burnout, behavioural concerns, and emotional wellbeing. She also supports children and families experiencing family separation, social and emotional challenges, neurodivergence, school-related difficulties, and developmental concerns.
Drawing from a person-centred, trauma-informed, attachment-focused, and strengths-based approach, Sarah tailors therapy to each person’s unique needs and goals. Her therapeutic work may incorporate play therapy, psychoeducation, emotional regulation strategies, mindfulness, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)- informed approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-informed approaches, and parent/carer collaboration where appropriate.
Sarah believes healing happens through connection and works alongside clients to build resilience, confidence, emotional insight, and practical coping skills to help them thrive in everyday life.
At Thrive Within Counselling, Sarah is committed to providing a nurturing and inclusive environment where individuals and families feel supported in growing, healing, and thriving.
Counselling Benefits
Through this process, you may begin to:
- Gain clarity and deeper self-understanding
- Navigate anxiety, low mood, and emotional overwhelm
- Strengthen relationships and communication
- Process grief, loss, and life transitions
- Build confidence and a stronger sense of self
- Develop healthier, more sustainable coping strategies
- Reduce stress and improve overall well-being
- Explore identity, direction, and personal meaning
- Address patterns such as substance use or self-harm
Sarah De Pasquale is a warm, compassionate Play Therapist who is passionate about supporting children and families to navigate life’s challenges in a safe, caring, and supportive environment. Sarah understands that children often communicate through play rather than words and believes that play can be a powerful way for children to express emotions, build confidence, process experiences, and develop important coping skills.
Since completing her postgraduate studies in play therapy in 2024, Sarah has supported children experiencing anxiety, emotional regulation difficulties, behavioural challenges, family separation, grief and loss, social challenges, trauma, neurodivergence, and developmental differences.
Sarah takes a gentle, child-led and trauma-informed approach, creating a space where children feel safe, understood, and accepted. She works closely with parents and caregivers, recognising the important role families play in helping children grow, heal, and thrive. Sarah is passionate about helping children build emotional resilience, confidence, and stronger connections so they can flourish both at home and in everyday life.
Sarah De Pasquale offers a warm, collaborative, and reflective supervision space grounded in person-centred, integrative, trauma-informed, and strengths-based practice. Sarah understands that supervision is not simply about oversight — it is about creating a supportive professional relationship where practitioners feel safe to reflect, question, learn, and grow.
Sarah’s supervision approach is tailored to your individual level of experience, professional goals, therapeutic orientation, and scope of practice. Whether you are a student, graduate, early career clinician, or experienced practitioner, supervision is designed to meet you where you are in your professional journey.
Sarah values creating a non-judgemental, authentic, and psychologically safe environment where supervisees feel supported to openly discuss successes, challenges, uncertainty, and areas for growth. Sessions encourage reflective thinking, curiosity, professional confidence, and ethical decision-making, while honouring the unique strengths and identity of each practitioner.
Benefits of Clinical Supervision
Clinical supervision can support practitioners to:
- Strengthen ethical practice, professional accountability, and safe service delivery
- Build clinical confidence, therapeutic skills, and case conceptualisation
- Develop deeper self-awareness, reflective capacity, and professional insight
- Explore complex presentations, therapeutic relationships, and clinical challenges
- Receive guidance, support, and constructive feedback in a safe environment
- Enhance therapeutic interventions and evidence-informed practice
- Strengthen professional identity and confidence as a practitioner
- Maintain alignment with professional standards and scope of practice
- Reduce feelings of professional isolation, overwhelm, and self-doubt
- Support practitioner wellbeing, resilience, and burnout prevention
Areas of Focus in Clinical Supervision
Supervision sessions may include:
- Case conceptualisation and therapeutic formulation
- Exploring complex client presentations
- Reflective discussion of clinical challenges and therapeutic processes
- Ethical decision-making and professional dilemmas
- Therapeutic interventions and integrating evidence-informed approaches
- Understanding transference, countertransference, and therapeutic relationships
- Managing professional boundaries and scope of practice
- Strengthening communication and therapeutic presence
- Supporting work with children, adolescents, families, trauma, emotional regulation, and neurodivergence
- Play therapy-informed practice and child-centred therapeutic approaches
- Documentation, professional standards, and reflective practice requirements
- Building confidence, professional identity, and clinical authenticity
- Supporting practitioner wellbeing, emotional sustainability, and burnout prevention
Sarah recognises that therapeutic work can be deeply rewarding while also emotionally demanding. Supervision therefore provides a valuable space to process professional experiences, maintain wellbeing, and ensure practice remains ethical, sustainable, and aligned with best outcomes for clients.
Supervision Options
One-on-One Clinical Supervision
A personalised and in-depth supervision experience tailored to your clinical practice, reflective needs, and professional goals. Individual supervision provides dedicated space to explore cases, therapeutic approaches, ethical considerations, professional development, and personal growth within practice.
Group Clinical Supervision
Small, professionally facilitated supervision groups (maximum of 6 participants) designed to encourage collaborative learning, reflective discussion, peer connection, and exposure to diverse clinical perspectives. Group supervision offers a supportive environment to learn alongside others while strengthening reflective capacity and therapeutic confidence.
Sarah is passionate about supporting practitioners to feel confident, capable, supported, and connected in their clinical work while fostering growth, authenticity, and excellence in therapeutic practice.
Sarah De Pasquale offers clinical supervision for Positive Behaviour Support Practitioners working within the NDIS framework, providing a structured, reflective, and supportive space to strengthen professional practice, clinical reasoning, and ethical service delivery.
Clinical supervision with Sarah is designed to support both emerging and experienced PBS practitioners to develop confidence, capability, and competence in delivering high-quality, person-centred behaviour support. Supervision provides an opportunity to reflect on practice, explore complex presentations, strengthen therapeutic formulation, and ensure interventions remain aligned with best practice principles and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission PBS Capability Framework.
Sessions may include support with:
- Clinical reasoning and case formulation
- Functional Behaviour Assessments (FBA) and understanding the function of behaviours of concern
- Development, implementation, and review of Interim and Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plans
- Restrictive practice reduction and elimination planning, including legislative and reporting requirements
- Risk assessment and risk management strategies
- Supporting participants with complex trauma, emotional dysregulation, neurodivergence, disability, mental health concerns, and complex behavioural presentations
- Developing proactive, skills-building, and person-centred strategies
- Strengthening report writing, documentation, and evidence-based recommendations
- Ethical decision-making, professional boundaries, and reflective practice
- Navigating complex stakeholder systems, including families, schools, allied health teams, support coordinators, SIL providers, and multidisciplinary teams
- Preparing for NDIS practitioner capability and endorsement requirements, portfolio development, and professional growth
Sarah’s supervision approach is collaborative, reflective, trauma-informed, and strengths-based, offering a safe, non-judgemental environment where practitioners can openly explore challenges, celebrate growth, and build confidence in their clinical decision-making. Sarah values authentic professional relationships and works alongside supervisees to foster reflective capacity, practitioner wellbeing, and sustainable practice.
Recognising the demands and complexities of PBS work, supervision also creates space to process practitioner experiences, manage professional stress, reduce burnout risk, and strengthen resilience in practice.
Supervision Options Available:
- Individual Clinical Supervision
- Telehealth or In-Person Sessions
- Support for Emerging, Core, Proficient, and Advanced Practitioners
- One-off Case Consultation or Ongoing Supervision Arrangements
- Flexible 60- or 90-Minute Sessions
Sarah is committed to supporting PBS practitioners to feel confident, competent, and clinically supported in delivering safe, ethical, and meaningful outcomes for the people they support
Initial Consultation (15 minutes) — Complimentary
A confidential, no-obligation conversation to explore your needs and ensure the right therapeutic fit.
In-Home Counselling (50 minutes) — $200
Discreet, personalised support delivered in the comfort and privacy of your own environment.
Community-Based Counselling (50 minutes) — $200
Flexible sessions held in carefully selected community settings, offering a more natural and accessible therapeutic experience.
Telehealth Counselling (50 minutes) — $150
Secure, professional support accessible Australia-wide—designed for convenience, flexibility, and continuity of care.
Play Therapy (50 minutes) — $150
A safe, child-centred therapeutic space where children can express emotions, build resilience, develop coping skills, and work through social, emotional, or behavioural challenges through play.
Clinical Supervision – Counsellors (60 minutes) — $150
A refined, reflective space to deepen clinical insight, strengthen practice, and support professional growth.
Clinical Supervision – Behaviour Support Practitioners (60 minutes) — $150
Specialised supervision focused on ethical, person-centred practice across complex and high-support needs.
Do I need a referral to book an appointment?
No referral is required. You can contact Sarah directly to make an appointment.
Are sessions covered by Medicare?
No, counselling and psychotherapy services are not currently covered under Medicare. However, sliding scale fees may be available—please enquire for more information.
How long are sessions?
Sessions are typically 60 minutes, with extended 90-minute sessions available if needed.
How often will I need to attend?
Most clients attend weekly sessions, especially at the beginning. This can be adjusted over time depending on your needs and goals.
Is everything I say confidential?
Yes, confidentiality is a core part of counselling. There are some legal and ethical limits (such as risk of harm to yourself or others), which will be explained in your first session.
What can I expect in the first session?
Your first session is a relaxed conversation where you can share what has brought you to counselling. Sarah will also gather some background information and work with you to identify your goals.
What issues can counselling help with?
Counselling can support a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, stress, grief and loss, relationship challenges, trauma, substance use, and life transitions.
Do you offer online (Telehealth) sessions?
Yes, sessions are available via Telehealth (Zoom) as well as in-home or face-to-face options where appropriate.
What are your fees?
Fees vary depending on the service. Please get in touch for current pricing and availability.
What is your cancellation policy?
At least 24 hours’ notice is required for cancellations. Late cancellations or missed appointments may incur a fee.
How do I know if counselling is right for me?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or navigating a difficult time, counselling can help. If you’re unsure, you’re welcome to reach out for a brief chat to see if it feels like the right fit.
Do you work with NDIS participants?
Yes, Sarah provides support for NDIS participants, including Positive Behaviour Support and supervision. Please enquire to discuss your individual needs.
Contact us.
“Thrive within Counselling & Psychotherapy acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging”