Sara Ouimette, MA
Marriage and Family Therapist #93508
Oakland CA
People come to see me for individual psychotherapy with an emphasis on psychedelic integration (including difficult psychedelic experiences), psychotherapy that is cannabis-friendly, trauma healing and recovery, or for spiritual counseling. Primarily, my approach recognizes the benefits and challenges that can come from accessing altered states of consciousness. Clients describe me as warm, compassionate, interactive and non-judgmental.
My style focuses on developing trust so we can enter into a co-exploration of you and what you want and need. I prefer to do longer-term, weekly "depth" work in order to uncover the roots of symptoms such as depression, anxiety or chronic pain that often lie somewhere in the past (outside of awareness). I believe it is important to spend time exploring early memories and experiences, looking closely at how they shape current reality. Dreamwork can also be especially helpful in gaining access to your deepest wishes, fears, unmet needs, complexes and defenses. Finding compassion for yourself often begins with acknowledging where your wounds came from. In gaining insight into yourself and what causes you the most suffering, you can come to trust and follow your inner compass, your soul, or your true self. I’ll also be very interested in what comes up when you’re with me; I work intuitively and will respond to you with presence, interest, authenticity and empathic attunement.
Sara Ouimette (pronounced “we met”) is a licensed psychotherapist in California specializing in psychedelic integration, spiritual counseling, cannabis use and abuse, highly sensitive people, women's issues, mid-life challenges, and various forms of trauma. She helps people make the deep inner changes necessary to feel more joy in their lives. Often this involves a paradigm shift: a realization that the deeply held fears and beliefs that hold people back can be dispelled.
Sara was first introduced to the potential power of plant medicine during her undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College over 20 years ago. It was in her Amerindian Psychiatry class that Sara first was introduced to native peoples’ concept of soul loss and soul retrieval. Inspired by her Ecuadorian professor, Sara wrote her thesis on Susto (translated to mean "fright sickness"), and the ancient South American treatment using ayahuasca with a shaman.
Her decade of experience with young children and their families now informs her work with adults (and the wounds often left by early experiences). From this work, Sara also developed a special interest in developmental trauma and attachment trauma (often resulting in complex PTSD). Sara received her M.A. in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and went on to pursue intensive training in psychodynamic psychotherapy at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Sara is a former member of The Society of Cannabis Clinicians and was an adherence rater for the studies on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD at MAPS from 2017 to 2022.
Sara is now training in Jungian Oriented Psychotherapy and holds a spiritual perspective in her work with all of her clients.