the TEAM

Sarah headshot

OWNER

Sarah Nunes, LCSW

Relationship & Trauma Therapist

EMDR Certified Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant in Training™

Hi, I’m Sarah. I started Brick City Therapy because I wanted to build the kind of practice I would want to send the people I love to—a place where therapy feels thoughtful, genuine, and connected. Not rushed, surface-level, or one-size-fits-all. I wanted to create a practice where we can slow down enough to really understand what is happening beneath the surface, while staying curious about the relationships, experiences, and patterns that shape us.

Part of that call from my heart was creating a place where I could also guide, supervise, and help develop clinicians who share this philosophy—therapists who are thoughtful, curious, clinically grounded, and deeply committed to the people they sit with.

I’m naturally curious about people. I love understanding what makes us who we are, why we get stuck in certain patterns, and how our relationships, experiences, and nervous systems shape the way we move through the world. That curiosity is what led me to become a therapist, researcher, teacher, and supervisor.

In the therapy room, I tend to ask a lot of questions (also in my personal life too). Not because I think I have all the answers, but because I believe people already carry so much wisdom within themselves. My role is to help you slow things down, connect the dots, make sense of your experiences, and create enough space for something new to emerge.

Outside of seeing clients, I spend my time supervising clinicians and thinking about how we can become better at the work we do. I genuinely love teaching, talking through complicated cases, and helping therapists learn to think deeply rather than reaching for quick fixes. I don’t believe great therapy is about having the perfect intervention. It’s about understanding the person sitting across from you, staying curious about what is happening beneath the surface, and holding the change that is emerging with care and gentleness.

At the end of the day, I believe therapy should help you understand yourself more deeply—not because you’re broken, but because life is complicated. My hope is that our work together helps you feel more connected to yourself, more intentional in your relationships, and more confident in creating a life that actually feels fully yours.

Beyond the Therapy Room

O​ne of the things I love most about this work is that there’s always more to learn. Whether I’m reading a new study, teaching graduate students, presenting at a conference, or mentoring clinicians, I’m thinking about all of the things-how to become a better therapist, how to help others do the same, what are the missing pieces in clinical work, and how I can help bridge that divide.

Over the years, my trainings, certifications, clinical expertise centers on three interconnected areas that form the foundation of Brick City Therapy- (1) attachment and neurobiology and development, (2), Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) and memory reconsolidation, and (3) somatic psychology. Together, these frameworks guide the training and the work we do that helps our clinicians remain curious, connected, and attuned to the work they do, together in a relational space. My work is informed by EMDR, Somatic Integrated Processing, attachment theory, Internal Family Systems, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Relational Life Therapy, and psychodynamic approaches, but I do not believe in one-size-fits-all therapy. Every person walks through my door with a different history, background, experience, and way of making sense of the world. Our approach at Brick City Therapy reflects the respect we want people to feel when they leave our office.

Before becoming a therapist, I worked as an American Sign Language interpreter, an experience that deeply shaped how I think about communication, body language, disability, and the ways systems influence who we are. I learned a great deal through that work, and I carry that with me in the therapy room. As a therapist, I never stop learning. Education is something I value deeply, and that commitment extends to you-striving and curious to keep learning about you too, including the parts of you that may be harder to accept.

I’ve had the opportunity to teach graduate social work courses, present at national conferences, contribute to research, and publish on topics that I’m genuinely passionate about—including trauma, relationships, disability, substance use, and culturally responsive mental health care.

Some of the topics I’ve spoken and written about include:

  • Trauma and attachment
  • Disability and access to mental health care
  • Complex trauma and military community
  • Complex trauma and disability
  • Substance use and harm reduction
  • Forensic social work
  • Cultural responsiveness in psychotherapy
  • Working with Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf New American communities
  • How relationships, families, and larger systems shape our mental health

Research has always been an important part of how I think. I’ve contributed to peer-reviewed publications and book chapters exploring childhood adversity, trauma, disability, and the ways our environments influence mental health. I don’t see research as something separate from therapy—it’s one of the ways I continue asking better questions and bringing thoughtful, evidence-informed care into my work.

Teaching is another part of my work that I genuinely enjoy. I’ve taught graduate-level social work courses in psychopathology, addiction, clinical practice, mental health policy, and interpersonal practice, and those experiences continue to shape how I supervise clinicians at Brick City Therapy. My goal is to help support therapists to become thoughtful, able to challenge themselves, and who know how to think critically and care deeply.

A few things I’ve been lucky to do
  • Author and featured work in Columbia University Press on transformative social work and disability.
  • Published research in Brain and Behavior examining childhood adversity and adolescent mental health.
  • National presenter for organizations including NAADAC, the National Organization of Forensic Social Work, the Association for Women in Psychology, Syracuse University, College of Law: Burton Blatt Institute, Drexel University College of Medicine, National Association of Social Work NYS, and the New York State Probation Officers Association, to name a few.
  • Recipient of Syracuse University’s Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators.
  • Graduate instructor, researcher, and invited speaker dedicated to advancing thoughtful, evidence-informed psychotherapy.
Certifications & Advanced Trainings

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a trauma-focused therapy that helps the brain and nervous system process experiences that still feel emotionally or physically unresolved. Rather than simply talking through what happened, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation alongside focused attention to help reprocess distressing memories, beliefs, and body sensations.

EMDR can be helpful for trauma, anxiety, relationship patterns, and other experiences that continue to shape how you feel, think, or respond in the present. The goal isn’t to erase what happened, but to help the experience feel more integrated—so it has less power over your life now.

Flash is a trauma-processing approach designed to help reduce the emotional intensity and distress associated with difficult or traumatic memories. Rather than asking you to fully revisit or recount a painful experience, Flash uses brief moments of focused attention and positive or neutral experiences to help the nervous system approach distressing material with less overwhelm.

Flash can be particularly useful for people who feel hesitant about traditional trauma processing, become easily overwhelmed when discussing difficult experiences, or want a gentler way to begin working with traumatic memories. It can also be integrated with other approaches, including EMDR, as part of a broader trauma treatment plan.

Four Blinks is a brief, body-based approach to working with distressing experiences and emotional responses. It uses a simple visual and somatic process to help the nervous system shift out of stuck patterns of activation, allowing difficult material to feel more manageable without requiring you to repeatedly retell or relive the experience.

Four Blinks can be incorporated into trauma therapy as a gentle, accessible way to support regulation, reduce emotional intensity, and create more capacity for deeper therapeutic work.

Somatic Integrated Processing brings the body into the work of therapy, recognizing that our experiences are held not only in our thoughts and memories, but also in the nervous system and body. Somatic Integrated Processing is foundational to the work I do, which incorporates three prongs of understanding (1) attachment and neurobiological development, (2) Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) and memory reconsolidation, and (3) somatic psychology. Through mindful attention to sensations, movement, impulses, and physiological responses, we can begin to understand patterns that may be difficult to access through talking alone.

This approach helps create greater awareness, regulation, and integration—supporting you in working with what your body is communicating while developing new ways of responding to stress, relationships, and difficult experiences.

Money can carry far more than a number on a bank statement. Our experiences with scarcity, instability, family expectations, success, debt, or financial security can shape how we understand ourselves, relationships, and what it means to feel safe. Historical attachment patterns are interwoven in how we feel, manage, or what we believe to be true about money.

Money trauma can show up as anxiety around spending or saving, difficulty feeling secure even when there is enough, shame about having or not having money, conflict with partners, or a constant sense that something could go wrong. Therapy can help you understand the emotional and relational patterns underneath your relationship with money and develop a sense of safety that isn’t dependent on always having control.

My approach is grounded in ongoing training and a commitment to thinking deeply about the work I do with clients. I have advanced training in Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused work, and Relational Living Therapy, with additional training across attachment, trauma, somatic approaches, and relational psychotherapy. I draw from these frameworks to understand not only what is happening for you individually, but what is happening between people—the patterns, protective strategies, and relational dynamics that can keep us stuck. My goal is to bring together these perspectives in a way that is thoughtful, practical, and deeply connected to the complexity of each person and relationship and support my clinicians in seeing these patterns too.

What Makes Brick City Different

Care that’s relational, inclusive, and clinically excellent — so you can feel seen and empowered to create the life and relationship you want.

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Individual Therapy

You may know why you do what you do and still find yourself repeating it. Individual therapy helps you deepen your understanding of experiences, relationships, and protective patterns underneath what’s happening now—and create change that actually sticks.

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Relationships

When the same conflict keeps happening, communication usually isn’t the whole problem. We help couples understand what’s happening underneath the cycle, repair disconnection, rebuild trust, and create a more secure relationship.

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Our Relational Program

An immersive approach to changing the patterns between you. Our Relational Program offers a collaborative approach to therapy through conjoint and co-therapy. With more than one therapist in the room, there is greater space to understand the patterns, dynamics, and experiences that can be difficult to see from a single perspective.

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