Has survival mode become a way of life ?
Somatically-informed trauma therapy for adults who are used to being the steady one.
You’ve learned how to function in your family, your career, and your community. You can lead when others hesitate, and somehow keep moving forward under pressure.
But something feels off. Your anxiety doesn’t quite make sense. Your reactions can feel intense or difficult to explain. You keep showing up for everyone else, yet privately you feel tense, reactive, or quietly exhausted.
Often, people who have experienced developmental trauma are the most capable in the room. Doctors, professors, lawyers, nurses, therapists, entrepeneurs: helpers, leaders, and organizers.
You don’t have to perform strength here.
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What makes this different:
Many people arrive here after years of talk therapy. They already understand their history, have tried affirmations, explored retreats, maybe even tried meditation or CBT— yet the same patterns persist.
As a Master Therapist in the The NeuroAffective Relational Model, I know that talk therapy often misses the mark. We can talk about the pattern until we are blue in the face. Adaptations to developmental trauma are so ancient, so fused with how we understand ourselves, that it can feel like there is no way to intervene.
That’s why we need a process that is experiential and present-focused. Instead of endlessly analyzing the past, we intervene by paying attention to what is happening right now — in your body, in your emotions, and in the beliefs organizing your experience.
I will not try to ‘fix’ you.
Instead, we will get deeply curious about how your patterns are actually working for you— and what they’re costing you.
As core emotional experience is allowed and integrated, the system reorganizes naturally. Changing the way we relate to ourselves and the world around us comes from clarity and connection, not from pushing ourselves harder.
Who this work is for:
You probably have twenty people in your life who will give you advice. Who will tell you what they would do. That is not what this is.
This work is for people who have been the steady one, or who know what it is to survive the chaos. You may be the first in your family to do things differently. A parent trying not to pass on what you inherited. A queer professional who learned to adapt in rooms not built for you. Someone holding a diagnosis, a genetic result, or a season of uncertainty while still managing everything and everyone around you.
What I offer: a relationship with someone who has the training to read through your strategies and defenses, and stay with what is underneath. Someone who will push back, stay focused, and is more interested in what you are protecting than how well you are holding it together.
Medical and hereditary stress:
When medical decisions enter the picture, those same survival patterns intensify.
Research becomes relentless. Responsibility expands. The pressure to stay strong and informed can override grief and fear moving underneath the surface.
If you’re navigating cancer, high risk genetic mutations, IVF decisions, surgical timing, or survivorship, you may find yourself functioning remarkably well while feeling anything but steady inside.
In this work, we slow it down. We make room for what hasn’t had room. So you can move forward connected to your whole self — not just the competent part.
Hi, I’m Sara Champie, LCSW.
I’m a NARM Master Therapist, and my work addresses developmental trauma at its roots so that responsiveness becomes choice, not compulsion. I work with people who want more than coping — they want to feel alive again and make sense of what they’ve inherited, not just endured.
I work with anyone that is curious about how they could feel more alive and authentic. Much of my work is with people navigating cancer or living inside the constant decision-making, uncertainty, and grief that comes with hereditary risk.
Working together
Therapy here is deliberate and relational. We move thoughtfully and with precision, paying attention to patterns as they arise in real time — without forcing insight or dramatic catharsis.
Nothing is rushed. Nothing is bypassed.
If you’re ready for therapy that moves beyond coping skills and into real integration, I invite you to schedule a consultation.
Three ways we can connect
Individual Support
For California-based clients seeking one-on-one support. Therapy with me is a space to work gently and deeply with the emotional, somatic, and relational impact of trauma and long-term stress. Together, we explore how survival patterns, anxiety, and grief live in the body — and how to rebuild a sense of steadiness, agency, and connection.
Group Programs
An intimate space to connect with others who want to do the deep dive—who want to explore their process, not just their outcomes. With weekly topics, these groups offer community, shared understanding, and guided support for the emotional, relational, and generational challenges of carrying hereditary cancer risk.
Podcast
Conversations about navigating hereditary cancer risk. Join us to talk about life between the scans, and how finding out you have a genetic mutation can be a portal to emotional, relational and intergenerational healing.
