Sarah Sarubbi

About Sarah

Sarah Sarubbi, Psy.D is a Psychologist who graduated from Nova Southeastern University in 2012. As a skillful clinician, Sarah has 13 years of experience in the field and is licensed in North Carolina, California, and all other states eligible in PSYPACT.

What makes you enjoy working with seniors? Working with older adults is incredibly meaningful to me for several reasons. First, they bring a rich history of life experiences that adds depth and context to the therapeutic process.

Their stories, perspectives, passion, and resilience offer powerful insights into how people adapt to life's changes and challenges over time. Second, older adults are often at a unique stage of psychological development where reflection, meaning-making, and legacy become central themes. Helping them navigate issues like loss, transitions, identity, aging, or cognitive changes allows for deeply rewarding work.

There is also an opportunity to address long-standing patterns of behavior, struggles with mood, relationship concerns, and/or history of trauma that may only surface or become pressing later in life. Third, therapy with older adults is collaborative, grounded, and intentional. I find that older adults are especially thoughtful in seeking out therapy (either by themselves or with encouragement from family and friends); and this is not a decision taken lightly.

There is often a sense of mutual respect and a sincere willingness to engage in therapy for improved mental health and well-being. These factors allow for a strong therapeutic connection and lend themselves to improved therapeutic outcomes. Lastly, I believe that older adults are frequently overlooked in mental health care, and I consider it a privilege to be able to advocate for them, reduce stigma, and provide support and encouragement during a time of life that can be both beautiful and complex.

Why do you think online therapy is effective for seniors? I believe online therapy is effective for older adults for many reasons. Online therapy allows greater accessibility to older adults who might not otherwise be able to attend therapy as it eliminates the barriers of travel time, waiting time, and transportation.

Online therapy also offers increased flexibility, convenience, comfort, and availability of skilled providers for older adults. I find that a lot of people choose and prefer online therapy, as well, for increased confidentiality and to decrease stigma of attending therapy. Lastly, I believe that online therapy for older adults can be helpful in fostering independence and control over one's mental health.

While families are frequently involved in their loved-one's care (and encouraged!), online therapy may be one safe place where older adults may have their own time and space solely to themselves. How do you approach therapy sessions? I believe that therapy is the most effective and beneficial for my clients when the client and the therapist both agree to hold space for safety, honesty, integrity, open-mindedness, and hope.

With this in mind, I approach all my therapy sessions with kindness, curiosity, encouragement, safety, honesty, integrity, open-mindedness, and hope. I also commit to being up to date on research, knowledge, treatments, and interventions that work, in order to provide the best services and outcomes for my clients. What is your advice to someone who is starting therapy for the first time?

My advice to someone starting therapy for the first time is: "thank you for being brave and courageous to try something new." (More of a statement than advice, I suppose.) Therapy is here for you. We talk about and work on goals that you want to talk about and work on. It is not meant to be "scary" or "overwhelming" or "make you cry." You are not "broken" or "unfixable" or "crazy" or any other stereotype you may have heard or seen before about therapy and people who go to therapy.

Therapy is unique and personal. It is kind, welcoming, encouraging, hopeful, and rewarding. It exists to help people pursue valuable changes in their mental health and well-being.

Therapy can be challenging or difficult at times, and that is because change is sometimes hard work! Even so, please remember you are always, always worth it!