Sarah Sivasundaram

Face-to-face and online sessions during the day and evenings available. Please contact me to check availability. 

I offer a space where your story is valued, your struggles are met with compassion, and your goals are truly heard. I work with adults (18+) both in-person in Barnet or online. I blend a range of effective therapies, including client-led talking therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Psychodynamic Therapy, to create a personalised experience that addresses your unique challenges and aspirations. My commitment is reflected in the positive feedback I consistently receive from clients who have rediscovered hope, resilience, and clarity through our work together.

My own 3 pillars of therapeutic growth that I aim to create in private practice are: 

Building a strong alliance with a client to foster trust and safety

Growing self-awareness through understanding and, in turn, self-compassion

Growing the confidence to make different choices and change their lives

The work can be open-ended or time-limited. For example, a client could reflect on their childhood and make useful links with how events might affect them in adulthood. Or, a client could concentrate on one specific goal or symptom they are struggling with.  In both, the client's individual process is respected and held by me

My personal experience of neurodivergence and ADHD gives me an awareness and understanding of individuals living with or individuals living alongside this neurodivergent umbrella. My neuroaffirmative approach offers tools and helpful strategies to support clients and family members.

Alongside my private practice, I work for the NHS Talking Therapies Service via Mind in Hertfordshire. In this work I specialise is helping clients getting to the root of their symptoms, often in the form of acute/moderate anxiety and acute/moderate low mood and depression. I have also been part of the clinical team at Mind Barnet/Enfield for over 5 years.

My areas of expertise include: anxiety, low mood/depression, understanding a neurodivergent diagnosis, combatting low self-esteem, examining your harsh inner critic, stress, understanding your anger, maternal mental health, parenting, domestic abuse and recovery work, recovery from being in a relationship with a narcissist, childhood abuse, bereavement and loss, career transitions, life transitions, boarding school syndrome and sleep issues. 

Key aspects of my way of working

Integrative provides a structured, integrative form of psychotherapy that combines elements of CBT and psychodynamic (looking at the past). Sessions might involve cognitive, behavioural, and experiential exercises to break these patterns on a deep emotional level.

Trust your curiosity!

Your inner voice, the voice that pops up when we haven’t achieved, haven’t completed, or haven’t communicated, might be a harsh inner critic. Do you imagine how life might be if that voice were kind, forgiving and full of love? The fact you are here reading this means there is a part of you curious to change. That is the part you could grow in therapy alongside healing wounds from the past. Curiosity is a superpower. 

Is therapy scary?

Therapy can be a scary prospect. What do I say? How can I be vulnerable with a stranger? Will it work? These are all normal questions. I intend to, over a few sessions, start to create a trusting working relationship. If a client doesn't know where to start, I can helpfully prompt and guide.

I offer a 30 minute free one-off consultation online or on the telephone and prior to our first formal session I email out a therapeutic contract outlining my policies and procedures and a document asking for client contact details/GP details which the client signs. I adhere to the BACP ethical framework.

In the first session, usually, the client goes into what they are hoping to achieve in therapy in more detail. There is no formal assessment in the session, time is used as the client wishes and I hold in mind any gaps of information and aim to cover these informally during the session. Building rapport and a therapeutic relationship is paramount to the work I do with clients and these first few sessions are aimed to let the client settle and go at their own pace. This looks different for every client.

Other useful details regarding starting:

I offer a free 30 minute consultation session either online or on the telephone so that the client and myself can see if we might work therapeutically together. In this shorter session I also ask some questions about the client's history and what has brought them to counselling.

The first session and subsequent sessions will cost £80. Details of confidentiality, risk assessment, payment procedures, cancellation policy, holidays and absences are outlined in my counselling contract which the client receives when we have agreed to work together.  

Face-to-face and online sessions available both during the day and evenings. Please contact me to check availability.

I offer a space where your story is valued, your struggles are met with compassion, and your goals are truly heard. I work with adults (18+) both in-person in Barnet or online. I blend a range of effective therapies, including client-led talking therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Psychodynamic Therapy, to create a personalised experience that addresses your unique challenges and aspirations. My commitment is reflected in the positive feedback I consistently receive from clients who have rediscovered hope, resilience, and clarity through our work together.

My own 3 pillars of therapeutic growth that I aim to create in private practice are:

Building a strong alliance with a client to foster trust and safety

Growing self-awareness through understanding and, in turn, self-compassion

Growing the confidence to make different choices and change their lives

The work can be open-ended or time-limited. For example, a client could reflect on their childhood and make useful links with how events might affect them in adulthood. Or, a client could concentrate on one specific goal or symptom they are struggling with. In both, the client's individual process is respected and held by me

My personal experience of neurodivergence and ADHD gives me an awareness and understanding of individuals living with or individuals living alongside this neurodivergent umbrella. My neuroaffirmative approach offers tools and helpful strategies to support clients and family members.

Alongside my private practice, I work for the NHS Talking Therapies Service via Mind in Hertfordshire. In this work I specialise is helping clients getting to the root of their symptoms, often in the form of acute/moderate anxiety and acute/moderate low mood and depression. I have also been part of the clinical team at Mind Barnet/Enfield for over 5 years.

My areas of expertise include: anxiety, low mood/depression, understanding a neurodivergent diagnosis, combatting low self-esteem, examining your harsh inner critic, stress, understanding your anger, maternal mental health, parenting, domestic abuse and recovery work, recovery from being in a relationship with a narcissist, childhood abuse, bereavement and loss, career transitions, life transitions, boarding school syndrome and sleep issues.

Key aspects of my way of working

Integrative provides a structured, integrative form of psychotherapy that combines elements of CBT and psychodynamic (looking at the past). Sessions might involve cognitive, behavioural, and experiential exercises to break these patterns on a deep emotional level.

Trust your curiosity!

Your inner voice, the voice that pops up when we haven’t achieved, haven’t completed, or haven’t communicated, might be a harsh inner critic. Do you imagine how life might be if that voice were kind, forgiving and full of love? The fact you are here reading this means there is a part of you curious to change. That is the part you could grow in therapy alongside healing wounds from the past. Curiosity is a superpower.

Is therapy scary?

Therapy can be a scary prospect. What do I say? How can I be vulnerable with a stranger? Will it work? These are all normal questions. I intend to, over a few sessions, start to create a trusting working relationship. If a client doesn't know where to start, I can helpfully prompt and guide.

I offer a 30 minute free one-off consultation online or on the telephone and prior to our first formal session I email out a therapeutic contract outlining my policies and procedures and a document asking for client contact details/GP details which the client signs. I adhere to the BACP ethical framework.

In the first session, usually, the client goes into what they are hoping to achieve in therapy in more detail. There is no formal assessment in the session, time is used as the client wishes and I hold in mind any gaps of information and aim to cover these informally during the session. Building rapport and a therapeutic relationship is paramount to the work I do with clients and these first few sessions are aimed to let the client settle and go at their own pace. This looks different for every client. 

Other useful details regarding starting: 

I offer a free 30 minute consultation session either online or on the telephone so that the client and myself can see if we might work therapeutically together. In this shorter session I also ask some questions about the client's history and what has brought them to counselling. 

The first session and subsequent sessions will cost £80. Details of confidentiality, risk assessment, payment procedures, cancellation policy, holidays and absences are outlined in my counselling contract which the client receives when we have agreed to work together.