What's Xylem?
(/ˈzīləm/)

When I'm not in my office or in front of a classroom, on a great day I’m working with plants. I love clinical theory, ideas about how minds work, and watching things grow. In short, I'm kinda’ a huge nerd about everything that's alive.

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In biology, xylem is the stuff in plants that transports water and nutrients to the leaves, stems, and flowers so that the plant has what it needs to live and thrive. Because plants don't have muscles to actively move things, this transport process is "passive," meaning the plant builds xylem channels and then the water flows up the xylem to where it is needed. Liberation Therapy uses a similar concept when we talk about "consciousness raising" instead of "knowledge giving." Healing isn’t just giving someone water to survive or fixing broken parts, it’s working together to understand the whole structure that allows someone’s innate drive to live and grow to flow up through their body, psyche, and whole life.

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It's not my role to go to the source of "truth" or "health" and force feed it to anyone. As a Liberation Depth Psychotherapist, I know that my students, my clients, you already have the innate drive to grow and heal inside of you. Once you can connect with that knowledge (call it the unconscious, ancestral source, power...whatever feels right) you are able to draw what you need from the world around you. My job is to help you find and build the structures that allow what you need to flow up from the deepest roots of who you are to where it can help you thrive.

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Grateful for the chance to see you grow,

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Sarah