Therapy in Newport Beach, Callifornia
My Approach
A Collaborative, Integrative Approach
Therapy is deeply personal, and each person responds to a unique blend of support, insight, and challenge. I approach our work collaboratively, shaping sessions around your needs, your pace, and what feels most meaningful to you.
Bridging Behavioral and Depth-Oriented Therapies
Early in my career, I trained extensively in behavioral approaches such as CBT, DBT, ERP, and ACT, building a strong foundation in practical, skills-based support. These methods can be powerful tools for easing distress and increasing stability. Yet many people find that even after learning strategies, something deeper still feels unresolved.
Often, that’s because our struggles aren’t just about behavior. They’re shaped by history, relationships, emotional pain, and the ways we learned to cope and survive. It can be discouraging to know the skills and still find yourself pulled into familiar patterns. I often hear people say,
“I know I don’t want to do this anymore, but I keep falling back into it,” or
“I know my reaction doesn’t make sense, but I can’t seem to change it.”
Lasting healing invites us to slow down and look beneath the surface — to explore what your symptoms may be protecting, expressing, or longing for. This understanding led me toward depth-oriented therapy, drawing from Jungian and psychoanalytic traditions that honor mind, body, history, and the unfolding story of who you are becoming.
Depth-Oriented Healing
Today, my work integrates depth-oriented therapy with practical support. Together, we move beyond symptom management to gently explore deeper emotional patterns, relational dynamics, and the wisdom held in the body and inner world.
Rather than seeing symptoms as problems to eliminate, we approach them as meaningful signals — pointing to what has been hurting, what needs care, and what has been waiting to be heard.
As these patterns come into clearer view — how they once protected you and how they continue to shape your life — space opens for something new to emerge.
This approach supports you in everyday challenges while also inviting deeper, lasting transformation. Over time, it creates room to live with greater authenticity, presence, and a deeper sense of being at home in yourself.
Common Questions About Therapy
Depth-oriented therapy looks beyond symptoms to understand the deeper patterns shaping your experience.
We explore the emotional layers, past experiences, and relational dynamics that influence how you feel, respond, and relate—to yourself, your body, and others.
This work is informed by psychodynamic, Jungian, and attachment-based approaches, which explore how patterns develop and why they can be so hard to shift.
Over time, this deeper understanding creates space for change that feels more natural, meaningful, and lasting.
Many forms of therapy focus on reducing symptoms—helping you change thoughts, manage emotions, or shift behaviors. These approaches can be incredibly helpful and are often part of our work together.
Depth-oriented therapy goes a step further. Rather than only asking how do we change this?, we also ask why does this pattern exist in the first place?
We take time to understand the underlying emotional patterns, past experiences, and relational dynamics shaping what you’re going through—listening to symptoms not just as problems to fix, but as signals that something deeper may be asking for attention.
From there, change tends to feel less forced and more like a gradual movement toward greater integration and a deeper connection with who you are becoming.
Yes. Research has shown that psychodynamic and depth-oriented therapies are effective for a wide range of concerns—and that their benefits often continue to grow even after therapy ends.
Psychologist Jonathan Shedler has written extensively about this, highlighting how depth-oriented approaches support not just symptom relief, but deeper and more enduring change.
While this work can feel less structured than some approaches, it is grounded in a strong and growing body of research.
Absolutely.
I draw from behavioral approaches like CBT, DBT, ACT, and ERP to support you in managing distress, navigating relationships, and creating more stability in your day-to-day life. I also integrate mindfulness and neuroscience-informed approaches to help you better understand and regulate your nervous system.
Therapy doesn’t have to be either/or. We can hold both—developing practical tools while also exploring the deeper patterns that can make those tools hard to access or sustain.
Copyright © 2026 Sara Burchfiel, Individual and Family Therapy - All Rights Reserved.
Counseling in Newport Beach & across California
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