My name is Sarah Barkley and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker here in stunning Asheville, North Carolina.  I have been in private practice for close to 20 years, working mainly with women and adolescent clients.  My experience ranges from adolescent residential treatment in the woods of New Hampshire to forensic work on the West Coast to FBI/ victim work and serving as an expert witness in Colorado; all the while working with my private practice clients.  Most recently I have been sought out as a corporate speaker to talk about how our experiences and traumas shape our behaviors and how belief systems affect professional success. 

​I truly believe in my clients and their intrinsic wisdom.  I have seen in all of my diverse work the incredible ability of humans to take mastery over their current position in life.  Most of my clients come to me to fine tune areas of their life and are highly motivated to do the work and make the subtle and not so subtle shifts they have been craving. 

My personal style is one that is both active and challenging; melding traditional psychological approaches and life coaching modalities.  If you've been to therapy in the past and it "didn't work", or you're just looking for something unique, I tend to have an "outside the box" approach.  I consider the work I do to be art of subtleties learned over thousands of data points and current science on how human brains process and evolve. 

My goal is to leverage my 20 years of clinical experience to get clients effectively and efficiently to their desired goals.  Therapy does not have to last years!  Treatment can exist in a specific time and place then returned to many years later when something feels important to process.  I've maintained relationships with many of my clients for decades, often going from one year to the next until something arises, allowing us to continue seamlessly.







​



​