Sarah O'Sullivan, AASW

Sarah O'Sullivan is an AASW social worker with six years of clinical practice and a long personal history of lived experience. She began in Queensland Health as a lived experience worker and brings that perspective into sessions. Her approach aims to meet each person where they are and respect individual journeys toward better wellbeing.

She has a background in both government and non-government services, so she knows the complexities of navigating systems. That experience led her to add advocacy work, including report writing for court or NDIS matters. She also offers domestic violence-informed mapping using the Safe and Together model when relevant to legal processes.

Sarah works with people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, addictions, parenting challenges and related family problems. She also has experience with attachment issues, adoption and foster care concerns, caregiver stress, dissociation and substance misuse. Sessions focus on practical next steps as much as understanding history.

Her clinical style blends attachment-based, client-centred and mindfulness approaches alongside motivational interviewing and narrative work. That mix helps people untangle patterns, clarify values and build relapse prevention or recovery plans. Sarah uses functional capacity assessment tools such as the Allen Cognitive Levels model when needed.

People who prefer a straightforward, advocacy-aware therapist often find her a good match. The first step is a short matching questionnaire and scheduling through the Start Therapy button, which helps connect people to an appropriate session time.

How her approaches translate to online work

Attachment-based work focuses on relationships and patterns that developed early in life. In online sessions this looks like talking through connection experiences and noticing how those patterns show up now, which can help with parenting, attachment issues and relationship distress.

Client-centred therapy prioritises the person in front of the therapist. The therapist listens, reflects and follows the client's pace to build understanding and practical goals. This suits people who want a respectful, collaborative space to talk through problems like anxiety or depression.

Mindfulness therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce stress and reactivity. It can be useful for managing anxiety, cravings in addiction recovery, and overwhelming emotions after trauma.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals and preferences and together decide which methods to try. That collaborative process may combine approaches or shift them as progress is made.

The biography does not list specific online session formats, so confirm current options before booking. In general, online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and remove travel time. They can also support people who need advocacy, report writing or relapse planning while juggling other commitments.