Sarah established her private practice in 2011 and brings over a decade of experience supporting individuals through a wide range of challenges. She has worked extensively with clients experiencing alcohol and other drug addictions, bullying, self-harm, depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. Sarah also provides compassionate support to individuals and families navigating grief and loss, including bereavement following suicide.

Taking the first step toward mental well-being is a meaningful decision. Sarah is a qualified counsellor dedicated to helping individuals find clarity, balance, and a renewed sense of direction. She offers a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental space where clients can explore their thoughts and emotions openly.

Her approach is grounded in person-centred therapy, complemented by an integrative framework that recognises each client’s unique experiences and needs. By combining evidence-based techniques with genuine empathy and understanding, Sarah tailors each session to support meaningful and lasting change.

Sarah has a particular interest in working with individuals impacted by substance use, stigma, and identity exploration, including those within the LGBTIQP+ community. She also supports clients with forensic histories and those living with diagnosed mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

Known for her holistic and compassionate approach, Sarah creates a supportive environment where clients feel heard, respected, and empowered. Her work is grounded in empathy, authenticity, and a deep belief in the healing power of connection and conversation.

Appointments are flexible, with options for Telehealth (online) sessions or face-to-face support in the comfort of your own home.

Sarah is a registered counsellor and clinical supervisor with the Australian Counselling Association, Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, Australian Community Counselling Association, and the Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ARCAP). She is also listed with the Online Counselling Directory and Psychology Today.

Over the past 14 years Sarah has prided herself on acquiring diverse and evidence based training and undertaking professional development courses.

Completed Qualifications

• Masters in Counselling
• Post Graduate Certificate in Positive Behaviour Support
• Post Graduate Certificate in Counselling & Psychotherapy
• Post Graduate Certificate in Play Therapy
• Diploma in Mental Health
• Diploma in Alcohol and other Drugs
• Diploma in Leadership and Management
• Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Certificates

• Mental Health First Aid
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASSIST) 
• Senior First Aid & CPR
• Clinical Supervision
• Child Safe Environments Training
• NDIS Advanced Registered Behaviour Support Practitioner

Counselling & Psychotherapy

What is Counselling and Psychotherapy?

Counselling & Psychotherapy is a talking therapy that aims at building a professional and therapeutic rapport of trust, enabling a client to feel safe to share their challenges, feelings, issues, and individual goals.

Counselling is usually more of a short-term process, drawing upon a client’s strengths, abilities to assist them to manage their own challenges and therefore requires exploring their challenges in less depth.

Psychotherapy is a longer-term process & looks to explore the possible underlining challenges of the presenting issues impacting on the client’s life & generally involves the counsellor & the client exploring deeper into the past experiences & life of the client in terms of their human development, thoughts – cognitive & behavioural patterns.

Psychotherapy can be more directive to support clients in dealing with psychological challenges such as depression, anxiety, or other mental health diagnosis.

Sarah will sit alongside you to hold space, whilst you navigate the challenges that are causing you internal and external pain and anguish.

Benefits to Counselling & Psychotherapy

·        Working through interpersonal relationship issues with friends, partners and or family

·        Working in a safe space to talk about mental health illnesses and what this might mean for you

·        Career changes and or life changes

·        Building on strengths and improving ways to communicate with those around you

·        Working through grief and loss and coming to terms with life after a death

·        Stress management techniques

·        Working through loneliness and isolation

·        Learning new ways to deal with complex emotions without the need to self -harm or engage in substance use and or harmful behaviours

Counselling & Psychotherapy Approaches and therapy methods. 

Sarah has experience and alternates within the following integrative approaches

·        Person-centered Approach

·        Solution Focused

·        Motivational Interviewing

·        Humanistic Approach

·        Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

·        Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

·        Mindfulness approaches

·        Narrative Therapy

·        Systemic Therapy

·        Creative Therapy (Art)

.        Play Therapy

.        Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner

What is EAP counselling?

An EAP counselling program is a confidential employer-employee program that provides aid and support to individuals facing personal or work-related problems.

Sarah can assist with some of the most common EAP presenting problems

• Relationship issues
• Anxiety and worry
• Depression and low mood
• Family problems
• Conflict at home or work
• Marital break-down
• Grief management
• Stress Management
• Suicide and suicidal thoughts
• Decision making 
• Anger management
• Life stages
• Well-being and coaching
• Sleep difficulties
• Career Management
• LGBTQI+, gender and sexuality

Benefits to EAP

• EAP can improve your overall health and wellbeing
• EAP counselling is to resolve both work & personal problems before they impact adversely on work performance & general well-being.
• Reduce work related stress levels
• Assist with an prevent workplace burnt out and compassion Fatigue
• Prevent long periods of time away from work
• Space for a client to work through any work-related stress factors
• Assist staff after a critical incident
• Assist with work-p[lace conflict resolution
• Reduced absenteeism and stress
• Improved staff satisfaction

What is Counselling or Psychotherapy Supervision?

Supervision in counselling. Psychotherapy is when a therapist uses the services of another counsellor or psychotherapist to review the way they work with their clients. Supervision is a requirement by Australian Counselling Association or Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) to ensure all counsellors in practice are keeping their skills up to date and that they work in a safe and ethical way.

Benefits to Supervision

• Enhanced accountability for the counsellor / Psychotherapist
• Increased feeling of support
• Feedback gained and guidance given
• Development of professional skills and improved efficacy
• Designated time to reflect on counselling practice
• Opportunity to recognise personal and professional strengths
• Opportunity to increase professional confidence
• Space to identify areas of improvement
• Time to discuss work-related issues in confidence
• Explore your personal responses to work
• Prevention of compassion fatigue and burn-out

“I establish this safety by using a person-centred approach to supervision. The creation of a safe environment is an extremely important aspect of supervision, and it allows the supervisees to be vulnerable and to grow through learning about themselves and themselves as professional counsellors, leaving them feeling free to disclose areas of difficulty and/or dilemmas within their clinical practice.”  

Supervision Approach

Sarah Short approaches supervision from an integrative and collaborative framework, utilizing the RISE UP model of Supervision. Using an integrative approach to supervision is important, primarily because it allows Sarah to be flexible in their approach to supervision. This approach to supervision also allows Sarah to be open to working with a wide range of counselling practitioners, sharing knowledge and experience from different frameworks. Not only does this flexible approach help build a healthy learning environment in the supervisory relationship, but it also teaches supervisees new skills, through modelling.

In Supervision, Sarah will focus and give particular attention to the Supervisees professionalism and skills, within the boundaries of their level of development and experience and will give feedback and guidance around the following.

• Ethical behavior
• Counselling Skills
• Written and Verbal communication
• Legal and ethical expectations
• Personal awareness
• Transference and countertransference
• Ability to case formulate
• Time management and organizational skills
• Self-reflections and the ability to self-evaluate

Counselling Supervision Model “RISE UP”

Sarah practices counselling supervision via the “Rise Up” model, developed by Philip Armstrong, CEO of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA). This supervision model consists of four important steps:

1. Identifying possible mental and/or emotional health issues for the supervisee. Discussing this step will allow you to have a long and productive career as a practical and functional therapist.
2. Challenging the counsellor-supervisee’s use of theories, modalities, and ethics in relationship to the client. The purpose of this step helps you to learn and expand your knowledge base of theory and practical applications.
3. Assisting the counsellor-supervisee to develop further as a professional within the accepted guidelines via self-reflection. This is an obvious element of quality control, necessary within the profession, that will enhance your legal and ethical practice skills.
4. Providing the counsellor-supervisee with business-building skills and career development opportunities. This step will allow you to become a well-rounded, well-respected professional with the industry.

Services I offer 

• One on One Supervision

By far the most popular format for supervision, as this allows the Supervisee to have time to focus of their individual practice and enable an opportunity for person growth. This format allows you to build a strong supervisory relationship with Sarah as your supervisor, in more depth and it tailored to your individual needs.

• Group Supervision

This form of supervision is slowly becoming popular amongst counsellors and psychotherapies as it is more cost-effective for you. It will give you’re an opportunity to interact with other counsellors and psychotherapists and hear an array of different topics that are brought to supervision. This can be very beneficial if you are in the early stages of building your practice; enjoy interactions with other counsellors; and if you want to engage in professional supervision at a reduced rate. The group will be capped at 6 participants

Sarah offers clinical supervision for Positive Behaviour Support Practitioners working within the NDIS framework, providing a structured, reflective, and supportive space to strengthen practice and ensure high-quality, ethical service delivery.

Supervision with Sarah focuses on developing strong clinical reasoning, refining behaviour support strategies, and ensuring alignment with NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission requirements. Sessions may include reviewing behaviour support plans, functional behaviour assessments, restrictive practice considerations, and risk management, while maintaining a strong commitment to person-centred and trauma-informed care.

With experience supporting complex presentations, Sarah works alongside practitioners to navigate the challenges of behaviour support, build confidence in decision-making, and enhance outcomes for participants. Her approach is collaborative, non-judgmental, and tailored to your level of experience and professional goals.

Supervision is available for both emerging and experienced practitioners, with flexible options including Telehealth and in-person sessions.

Mindset Coaching

What is mindset Coaching?

Mindset Coaching is a type of talking therapy that focuses on a client’s existing core beliefs and patterns in they way you think.

Sarah will assist you in being able to recognise your negative mindset and suggest ways to shift and changes these ‘concrete’ thinking styles that are holding you back.

Sarah will guide you to be able to see your life through a new lens with more optimism and perspective, so you can reach your personal goals and objectives.

Benefits to Coaching

·        Seeing your negative thinking styles and how they are holding you back

·        Learning new ways to respond to things in our life

·        Resetting to encompass a new positive mindset that you will assist you in making more positive life decisions

·        Making you accountable and assisting you with motivation to succeed in life

·        Assistance with seeing your best attributes and limiting your self-doubt, self-belief, which will enable you to rise above and achieve all that life has to offer you

Different types of mindset coaching

·        Mindset Business Coach – This type of coach may focus on healthy mindsets around leadership, mentoring, corporate relations or communicating in the business environment.

·        Entrepreneur Mindset Coaching – If you’re an entrepreneur, you may want to work with a mindset coach who specialises in the struggles that business owners tend to go through.

·        Performance Mindset Coaching – If you’re someone who struggles to perform on the big stage or deliver their best on a consistent basis, this type of coach could be the one for you.

·        Success Mindset Coaching – A success mindset coach may specialise in dealing with self-sabotage, limiting beliefs, or setting and reaching ambitious goals.

·        Positive Mindset Coaching – If you’re an internal pessimist who constantly makes fear-based decisions, this is likely to affect you in all areas of life. In such a situation, positive mindset coaching could be just the cure.