About Sarah

 

Sarah Shore has been in private practice in the Philadelphia area since 2009. Her work is grounded in a depth-oriented, trauma-informed, and nervous system–based approach to psychotherapy, with a primary focus on identity reorganization, regulation, and psychological coherence.

 

Her practice is oriented toward structural change rather than symptom management. It is not organized around techniques or diagnoses, but around how identity is formed, fragmented, and reorganized through embodied experience over time. Clients come not because they lack insight or effort, but because the ways they have learned to function—often competently and at considerable personal cost—are no longer sustainable.

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Sarah’s work reflects a long clinical lineage and a deliberate synthesis of theory and method. Rather than integrating disparate approaches, her practice is organized around a coherent clinical stance: that cognition, emotion, physiology, and relationship are inseparable, and that meaningful change requires attention to how these systems interact in real time.

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​Clinical Lineage and Orientation

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The foundation of Sarah’s work is depth psychology, particularly the Jungian tradition as articulated by Marion Woodman and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. From this lineage comes an emphasis on embodiment, symbolic life, and the reclamation of vitality where identity has been constrained by adaptation, suppression, or over-identification with roles.

 

Equally central to the practice is contemporary trauma theory and relational neuroscience. The work of Philip Bromberg and Allan Schore informs an understanding of identity as state-dependent and dynamically organized—shaped through early relational experience and maintained through implicit patterns of regulation, dissociation, and self-protection.

 

Attachment theory provides a core organizing lens. Drawing from the foundational work of John Bowlby, the developmental research of Mary Ainsworth, the attachment-state framework of Mary Main, and the mentalization-based contributions of Peter Fonagy, Sarah’s work attends closely to how safety, regulation, and self-concept are co-constructed in relationship and continue to shape adult functioning.

 

The practice is explicitly nervous system–oriented, informed by polyvagal theory as developed by Stephen Porges. Autonomic states of safety, threat, activation, and collapse are treated as primary organizers of perception, emotion, and behavior. Therapeutic work therefore attends closely to shifts in regulation as they arise in the room, rather than relying on insight alone.

 

This nervous system focus is expressed through somatic psychotherapy traditions, including the work of Pat Ogden, Peter Levine, and the Hakomi method. These approaches contribute a disciplined attention to present-moment bodily experience, implicit memory, and the conditions required for integration without overwhelm.

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Sarah is also influenced by the work of Anne Wilson Schaef, particularly in understanding how cultural, familial, and relational systems normalize self-abandonment, reinforce over-responsibility, and shape identity through unseen loyalties and constraints.

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Taken together, these lineages form a single clinical orientation. Identity is understood as embodied, relational, and adaptive—capable of reorganization when adequate containment, consistency, and attuned presence are established.

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​Clinical Stance

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Sarah maintains a grounded, non-performative therapeutic presence. The work is relational and attuned, while remaining clearly bounded. Structure, consistency, and limits are treated as essential clinical conditions rather than administrative preferences.

 

The current structure reflects a commitment to ethical, sustainable work and to therapeutic relationships that are held with seriousness, clarity, and respect for both client and clinician.

 

The work is not hurried, and it is not indefinite by default. It is paced, deliberate, and oriented toward meaningful reorganization rather than ongoing management.

 

 

​Scope of Practice

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Sarah works primarily with adult women navigating the effects of trauma, chronic stress, identity strain, and long-standing patterns of overextension. Many clients are outwardly capable and responsible, yet internally fragmented, depleted, or constrained by adaptations that once ensured safety or functionality.

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The focus of the work is the restoration of internal authority, nervous system regulation, and psychological coherence. Therapy is conceived as a disciplined, contained process that unfolds over time, supporting clients in inhabiting their lives with greater presence, composure, and choice.

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