Sarah Moskowitz-Gordon, LCSW
Pronouns: she/her
Values and Philosophy
Sarah’s priority is ensuring that her clients feel understood and respected in their work together and believes that healing, acceptance, and change can only occur when a person feels safe and cared for. She views therapy fundamentally as a collaboration between the client and therapist—to jointly explore and make sense of a client’s past and current experiences, relationships, values, and needs in a gentle, curious, and non-judgmental way. Sarah works to make therapy feel grounding and supportive by creating a regular structure for sessions and having a shared sense of the client’s goals while also letting a client identify what feels important to focus on during each session together. Sarah values warmth and humor in exploring a client’s concerns and enjoys brainstorming ways to enhance and deepen the existing strengths and positive supports that a client has in their life alongside experimenting with new changes outside of session.
Areas of Focus
Sarah has experience supporting clients with understanding and managing anxiety, depression and mood variability, relationship conflict and trauma in relationships, loss and grief, and transitions to college and in parenthood. She has also supported clients in exploring aspects of their identities and managing challenges in coping behavior, such as disordered eating and self-injury.
Sarah utilizes several approaches and practices in therapy, drawing most heavily on psychodynamic theory as well as relational and attachment theories—exploring how past experiences and learning shape how we perceive, respond, and act (both consciously and unconsciously) and identifying patterns and needs in relationships. Sarah values exploring challenges and problem-solving using motivational interviewing and a solution-focused approach. When it feels useful, Sarah supports clients by collaboratively brainstorming skills and activities to experiment with outside of session in order to increase awareness, relief, and self-confidence—these include identifying somatic needs and related body-based strategies, finding resources to meet other needs and support lifeskill management, and developing other forms of stress tolerance and self-care.
Experience and training
Sarah is a licensed clinical social worker and holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where her clinical training included supporting adults going through homelessness to secure employment and providing individual counseling and group support to children and adults managing life change stress and anxiety. In addition to her work at Constellation Collective, Sarah sees clients through Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook, where she works with older teens and adults, primarily focused on needs related to anxiety, mood, life change stress, and parenting.