Let Your Knowledge Bloom on Substack
Artifacts, reflections &
the work behind the work.
This section documents my growth across the key domains of professional practice — from clinical theory and scholarly inquiry to self-care, mentorship, and advocacy. Each artifact represents a moment of learning, challenge, or integration on the path toward becoming a thoughtful, ethical, and relationally grounded clinician.
Philosophy of Counseling
My philosophy of counseling is grounded in the belief that behavior is meaningful communication, that healing happens within safe and attuned relationships, and that people are not broken — they are responding to what has happened to them and what support has been available. The artifacts in this section reflect the development of my theoretical orientation over time, from foundational exposure to major counseling theories toward an integrated, trauma-informed, and neurodivergent-affirming framework that centers dignity, equity, and the whole person.
At the foundation, I am person-centered. That's not a starting point I move away from — it's the through-line that holds everything else together. Unconditional positive regard, empathic attunement, and genuine congruence aren't techniques I apply; they're the conditions I try to create so anything meaningful can actually happen. Rogers (1957) argued that these relational conditions are not supplementary to the therapeutic process — they are the therapeutic process. I've watched this be true in session after session.
From that foundation, I layer in a trauma-informed and neurodivergent-affirming lens — because person-centered care, for me, has to account for the real-world context people are living inside. Distress isn't pathology. It's a meaningful response to lived experience, identity, and systems that weren't built with everyone in mind. Foo (2022) writes about this with striking clarity: healing isn't a straight line, and it doesn't happen by treating symptoms in isolation from the lives that produced them. Naming that honestly is part of how I honor the whole person.
With children specifically, I practice and am working toward certification in Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) — a modality that grows directly from person-centered roots. Play is the language children use to make sense of their world, process what's hard, and communicate what they don't yet have words for. As Landreth (2023) describes, CCPT trusts that children have an innate capacity for growth and self-direction when given a safe, accepting, and non-directive relationship to grow inside. My job isn't to fix — it's to follow, reflect, and stay genuinely present. I've seen how much shifts when a child is simply allowed to lead.
My work is also explicitly equity-centered. I pay attention to identity, power, and invisible labor — especially with caregivers, who are so often blamed in systems that should be supporting them. This orientation is shaped significantly by bell hooks, whose insistence that feminism is fundamentally a movement to end all forms of domination — not just gender-based ones — extends naturally into the therapy room (hooks, 1994). Teaching to transgress, for hooks, meant refusing to reproduce systems of compliance and control in spaces meant for growth. I hold that same refusal in my clinical work. Person-centered philosophy, for me, extends to every member of the family in the room.
What all of this produces, philosophically, is a counseling approach that prioritizes safety before strategy, relationship before technique, and dignity before compliance. I'm not trying to get clients to perform wellness — I'm supporting them in becoming more fully themselves.
A kid safe enough to play. A teen respected enough to stay. A caregiver supported enough to grow.
Foo, S. (2022). What my bones know: A memoir of healing from complex trauma. Ballantine Books.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
Landreth, G. L. (2023). Play therapy: The art of the relationship (4th ed.). Routledge.
Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 95–103.
Clinical Skills and Theory Development
Becoming a skilled clinician requires more than knowledge — it requires practice, reflection, and a willingness to be humbled by the complexity of human experience. This section documents my development of core clinical skills, including action planning, treatment planning, career counseling, and group facilitation. The artifacts here represent my growing ability to translate theory into attuned, practical, and developmentally responsive clinical work.
Research and Scholarly Activity
Ethical, effective counseling practice is grounded in research — and a commitment to staying informed is part of what it means to serve clients well. This section highlights my engagement with counseling research and scholarly inquiry, reflecting my ability to critically evaluate literature, connect findings to clinical practice, and contribute to a profession that is always evolving. I approach research not as separate from the relational work of counseling, but as deeply tied to it.
Professional Service, Leadership & Advocacy
Counseling is not a neutral act — it exists within systems of power, culture, and policy that shape the lives of the people we serve. This section reflects my commitment to professional service, leadership, and advocacy as essential dimensions of counselor identity. The work documented here represents my engagement with the broader profession and my responsibility to advocate for clients, communities, and equitable access to care.
Advocacy is at the heart of ethical counseling practice. From classroom learning to real-world application, I believe counselors have a responsibility to challenge systems that harm clients and to amplify voices that have historically been marginalized.
Mentorship
Growth in this profession doesn't happen in isolation. Mentorship has been one of the most meaningful parts of my development as a counselor-in-training, offering me perspective, accountability, and the kind of honest feedback that accelerates learning in ways coursework alone cannot. This section documents my experience choosing and working with a mentor, and reflects on what I've gained from being in a deliberate mentoring relationship.
Both mentorship and supervision are relational at their core. They both require trust, consistency, and the kind of feedback that is honest enough to actually be useful. Where they differ is in purpose and accountability. Supervision is evaluative, ethically required, and directly tied to client welfare. It carries legal and licensure weight. The question supervision is always asking, underneath everything, is: are you practicing safely? Mentorship is different. It is voluntary, longer in its arc, and more personal. A mentor is not responsible for evaluating your clinical work. They are there to help you figure out who you are becoming, where you want to go, and what kind of practice you actually want to build. Both relationships are necessary. And at their best, both reflect the same values I bring into the therapy room: honesty, warmth, and a genuine belief that people can grow.
For me, the starting point is always values. I want to learn from someone who leads with relationship and has built something that reflects a real commitment to dignity and equity. Beyond values, I am looking for lived experience in the specific intersection I am navigating: neurodivergent-affirming care, entrepreneurship, and community building. I want someone who has actually done it. Availability and genuine investment matter too. I am not looking for a figurehead. I want someone who will show up, ask hard questions, and tell me the truth kindly. That combination of warmth and directness is what I try to bring into my own clinical relationships. It makes sense that I would look for the same thing in the people I ask to guide me.
I am fortunate to already have two women in my orbit whose work reflects where I am heading. Brenda, founder of Empowered Mariposa and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, shares my person-centered, equity-rooted values and we already share space at the clinic. By December 2026, I will formalize that relationship as a mentorship with at least two intentional conversations about building a practice rooted in both clinical integrity and personal identity. My second goal involves Liz, founder of ArtPlay, whose sensory-welcoming expressive arts space in Phoenix is the closest existing model to what I want Sensory Center to become. By November 2026, I will make initial contact and begin a written concept outline for Sensory Center. Both of these women built something. That is what I want to do.
Wellness Plan and Self-Care
I believe that a counselor's capacity to show up for others is directly connected to how well they care for themselves. This section reflects my ongoing commitment to holistic wellness — not as a luxury, but as an ethical obligation. The artifact here documents my self-care assessment and the intentional practices I have put in place to sustain my psychological, relational, and professional health throughout my training.
Turns out I'm actually decent at this in a few meaningful ways. My physical self-care is solid — I eat real meals, protect my sleep like it's sacred, and stay on top of my medical stuff proactively. My workplace self-care? Also genuinely strong. I set limits with clients, balance my caseload intentionally, get consistent supervision, and keep my workspace in a way that actually feels good to be in. And spiritually, I stay pretty grounded — time in nature, meaningful causes, music, hope. It's not performative. It's a real foundation I've built, and I can feel it. These aren't checkboxes. They're habits that hold me.
Okay, real talk — my social world has gotten quietly small. Between practicum, parenting, and just... life doing a lot right now, spending time with people whose company I genuinely enjoy has dropped to "rarely." That's worth naming. I'm also someone who journals when things get hard, not as a regular practice — which means I'm using writing as a fire extinguisher instead of smoke prevention. My plan: one nourishing social connection weekly (non-negotiable, even if it's a walk), three mornings a week of brief reflective writing, and at least one window of actual rest — no productivity allowed. Small, specific, sustainable.
Professional Development Reflection (CNL-664A) — due Week 15 of Internship I. Add to the bottom of this page once written.
What it’s like
We build safety first.
Because nothing meaningful happens without it.
We look at patterns.
Not just behaviors.
We include parents & caregivers.
Without blame.
We move at a pace
that actually supports change.
CONTACT
sarah@clearwavescounseling.com
480-359-7950
4100 S Lindsay Rd #124
Gilbert, Arizona
www.sarahapotter.com
Professionally insured through the American Counseling Association
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