Dr. Sara Teta

Hi there,

Welcome to my page! I’m excited to share a bit about myself with you. If any of these topics catch your interest and you’d like to chat, please feel free to reach out.

As a New York native who grew up upstate, my experiences exploring the small patches of woods in the city that I grew up, as well as, the more suburban and rural surrounding areas, developing adventurer skills in nature with my girlscout troop, and camping or hiking in the Adirondacks or Catskills with my family nurtured a love for nature. After moving to New York City, it was difficult to continue to nurture this connection, although over the years I was able to bring curiosity and creativity to how I viewed nature in a more densely packed city scape! I bring this love and connection to our environment and nature to the therapy work that I engage in, as well as, my ability to be flexible, open-minded, and think outside of the expectations for connecting to ones intuition and remaining grounded to the self.

I’m a life-long learner and student with many interests. Some of these include how family-of-origin wounding can impact development and quality of life, how to nurture and develop the ability to bring attention to the absolute present, and how ones nervous system impacts their ability to listen to their needs and, subsequently, make choices to follow those needs or ignore. I have an even greater interest in supporting the building of the relationship with the Self, as I see it our modern day world has led to a disconnect from our ability to hear our intuitive needs and wants clearly, and then follow suit.

I am a New York State-licensed psychologist with experience working with children and adults of a variety of ages, backgrounds, and experiences. My training has centered around mental health and how we connect to others within the broader systems that we live; within our families, partnerships, workplace, and the broader society.

In addition to my formal masters and doctorate level psychologist training, I have completed Reiki Level I and Level II training (2020), a supplemental training and practitioner certification in Integrated Medicine for Mental Health Professionals (2020) to support ones understanding of the food and mood connection, movement, and sleep routines and their impact on overall wellness and everyday quality of life, the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) (2020) practitioner certification developed by Dr. Stephen Porges and based on Polyvagal Theory, and I am an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)-trained psychologist. I also recently completed a Level 1 Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide (KMOG) certification, which supports wilderness/ walk and talk therapy experiences.

I have an interest in a range of healing modalities and therapeutic interventions. These include, generally, a trauma-informed approach and, more specifically, relational and attachment-oriented support, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapies, mindfulness-informed practice, energetic healing support, as well as, lifestyle interventions.

I have a background working at each system level, including direct services of therapy/ counseling and psycho-educational diagnostic evaluations with children, adolescents, teens, and adults, indirect services of consultation with teachers and school teams for behavioral problem-solving and intervention planning, and prevention planning at the school level. I also facilitate adult training targeting a variety of topics, including self-care and stress management, mindfulness and its benefits, parenting children with Neurodivergent experiences, special needs or behavioral challenges, utilizing testing accommodations with college entrance exams, the college applications process, supporting children with disorders and disabilities in the schools, bullying prevention and school climate programming with school district teams, and clinical coaching work supporting team development and program implementation in NYC DOE schools promoting positive behavior, mental health curriculums, and social-emotional learning. Similarly, I have expertise in helping parents understand and manage their child’s emotions and behaviors and facilitating, overall, an improved family dynamic.

Currently, I work as a school psychologist in the NYC Department of Education, as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College in the School Psychology, Counseling, and Leadership programs, and I maintain a private practice working with clients virtually across New York State and in-person at my office located on Canarsie lands located in Lenapehoking, or what we currently know in name as Brooklyn, NY. To learn more about land acknowledgement and to learn how to get involved, please explore your local native land back organizations. The Manhatta Fund is an organization located in New York City.

I have a high interest in systems work, which has led me to focus my clinical interests on the holistic system of the individual; in order to promote mental health and wellness for the individual, their entire being must be assessed, considered, and supported.  This leads me to incorporate many elements into my clinical work to support you with optimizing your everyday life.  I bring my own varied identities to the work that I do and make an ongoing effort to understand my privilege as a white individual and how it presents in the work that I engage with, as well as, continue to challenge my inherent, personal biases.  I identify as a heterosexual, neurotypical cis-gendered female.  I feel it is important to consider all of the systems, identities, attachment figures and relationships, physical health, routines, and lifestyle choices, values, and the relevant spiritual systems that you uniquely carry in order to collaboratively develop a therapy or consultation plan.

I am a therapist, a partner, daughter, friend, sister, and ultimately, just a person who is also engaged in the challenging, personal work of balancing life demands, career expectations, re-processing childhood traumas and relational injuries, and engaging in intimate relationships all while staying connected to one’s intuition. I know it can be hard to slow down and make time for one’s self, and I believe that therapy can be supportive of that effort. It’s a scheduled time to downshift, be centered in attention and intention, be fully present with the Self and the therapist other, a safe space to embrace vulnerability and to start to recognize, and even cultivate, a deeper connection to one’s authentic self.