Sabrina Gonzales | she/her
Role: Associate Clinical Social Worker
License: ACSW #137249
Location: 317 West Bedford Ave, 105D, Fresno, CA 93711
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 559-633-9030 ext 106
Interested in working with Sabrina?
Sabrina will begin welcoming new clients in October. To learn more about availability or schedule an appointment, please call 559-600-9030
When you spend your days being who the job needs you to be, it can be easy to lose sight of who you want to be when the shift ends. Therapy can be a space to reconnect with the person behind the profession.
About Sabrina:
Sometimes therapy is about healing from what happened. Sometimes it’s about figuring out who you are now, what you want next, and learning that boundaries are not a bad word.
Social work is my second career, and I came to the field after 17+ years in emergency room services. That experience shaped the way I understand stress, burnout, crisis, relationships, resilience, and the reality of functioning in high-pressure environments. It also gave me a particular appreciation for people who spend much of their lives caring for, responding to, or showing up for everyone else.
As a therapist, I take a person-centered, strengths-based approach and am trained in EMDR therapy. I believe you already bring strengths, experiences, and insight into the therapy room. My role is not to tell you who you should be, but to help you better understand yourself, recognize patterns that may no longer be serving you, process experiences that continue to affect you, and develop tools that support the life and relationships you want.
I enjoy working with teens, adults, and couples, and I welcome clients across LGBTQIA+ and heterosexual identities and relationships. I see clients virtually and in person. Areas I especially enjoy exploring include:
– First responder experiences and occupational stress
– Career burnout and chronic stress
– Second careers and major life transitions in midlife
– Anxiety and depression
– Stress management and emotional regulation
– Family systems and blended-family dynamics
– Relationship concerns
– Your relationship with yourself, including self-worth and identity
– Boundaries — creating them, communicating them, and actually maintaining them
– Navigating spirituality, religion, or faith later in life
– Exploring how family, career, relationships, and past experiences influence who you are today
I recognize that starting therapy does not always mean something is “wrong.” You may simply be at a point where the way you have always handled things is no longer working. Maybe you are successful but exhausted. Maybe you are entering a new chapter and questioning what you want it to look like. Maybe you are learning to prioritize yourself after years of prioritizing everyone else. Or maybe you know exactly what needs to change but are struggling with how to make that change happen.
Therapy can be a space to slow down, get curious about those patterns, process what needs to be processed, and build on the strengths that have already carried you this far.
Specialized work:
I’m Here to Support You Through:
Individual
Therapy
Couples
Counseling
Grief & Loss
First Responder
Mental Health
Trauma &
PTSD Recovery
Military &
Veteran Support
Is Sabrina Right for You?
Finding the right therapist is an important decision. Here’s what working with Sabrina looks like:
Sabrina might be a good fit if…
What to expect in our work together
Working with me means having a space where you can show up as you are—not as who you think you’re supposed to be. My approach is person-centered, strengths-based, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that you already possess strengths we can build upon together.
You can expect therapy that is warm, genuine, supportive, and practical. I value open conversation and curiosity. We may explore how past experiences, relationships, family systems, work, identity, and life transitions influence how you experience yourself and the world today.
As an EMDR-trained therapist with a background in emergency services, I also understand that sometimes being highly capable, independent, or good under pressure can make it difficult to recognize when survival skills have stopped serving you outside of survival situations.
Together, we may work on:
Understanding patterns rather than simply treating symptoms
Managing stress, anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm
Processing difficult or impactful experiences
Strengthening relationships with yourself and others
Navigating career and life transitions
Exploring identity, values, spirituality, or faith
Improving communication and emotional awareness
And, of course… BOUNDARIES—setting them, communicating them, and learning that having them doesn’t make you difficult.
Therapy with me isn’t about telling you who you should become. It’s about helping you better understand who you are, what you need, and how you want to show up—for yourself and the people who matter to you.
Not sure if we’re the right fit? Let’s talk.
Sabrina’s Approach to Therapy
Honoring Your Story & Recognizing Your Strengths
My therapeutic approach is grounded in honoring your story while helping you understand yourself more clearly—where you have been, what has shaped you, and where you would like to go next.
I believe meaningful change often begins with curiosity: being willing to question the beliefs and patterns you have carried, acknowledge your own truths, and look at yourself as a whole person rather than judging individual parts of your story. Therapy can provide a space to explore those parts with compassion while recognizing that even the ways you learned to cope or protect yourself may have developed for a reason.
As a strengths-based therapist, I believe you bring far more into the therapy room than your struggles. You also bring resilience, lived experience, values, relationships, accomplishments, and strengths—including some you may have lost sight of along the way.
Life moves through different seasons, and what worked for one chapter may not fit the next. Sometimes growth means developing something new; other times, it means rediscovering strengths that were already there.
There is a season for everything. Together, we can explore what this season is asking of you—and recognize the strengths you already carry to move through it.
Trauma-Informed & Shame-Free
Using a trauma-informed, person-centered approach, I integrate therapeutic modalities including EMDR, DBT, and Integrative Relationship Therapy (IRT) to help you explore difficult experiences, better understand emotional and relational patterns, and challenge the shame or self-judgment that can become attached to them.
Therapy does not have to mean rushing to “fix” what hurts, explaining it away, or forcing difficult experiences into a positive narrative. I am comfortable sitting with the hard stuff and creating space for curiosity, honesty, and compassion—even when what comes up feels complicated, contradictory, or uncomfortable.
Together, we can explore how your experiences have shaped your relationships with yourself and others, while recognizing that those experiences do not have to define your entire story. Our work can include examining patterns, strengthening emotional awareness, developing healthier boundaries, improving relationships, and identifying what you want to carry forward—and what you may be ready to leave behind.
Growth does not require rejecting parts of yourself or your story. It can begin with understanding them without judgment and creating a narrative that reflects not only what you have experienced, but also your strengths, values, relationships, and the person you are becoming.
Specialized Support for First Responders & Military
That experience shaped her interest in supporting first responders, healthcare professionals, and others working in demanding, high-stress careers. She understands how being the person who stays calm, handles the crisis, or takes care of everyone else can affect life beyond the job—including relationships, family dynamics, burnout, boundaries, identity, and the ability to transition out of “work mode.”
Sabrina also recognizes that the qualities that help you succeed in high-stress environments—independence, compartmentalization, vigilance, resilience, and the ability to push through—may not always serve you in the same way at home or in your relationships.
Therapy offers a place to explore the person behind the professional role: Who are you when the shift ends? What parts of the job come home with you? And who do you want to be for yourself and the people who matter to you?
You shouldn’t have to spend the entire session explaining the culture of working in an environment where “I’m fine” often means “I’m functioning.”
Common Questions About Working With Sabrina
Ready to Take the First Step?
Complimentary 10-minute consultation. Let’s see if we’re the right fit for you.
All inquiries are confidential, and we typically respond within 2-3 business days.
Contact Sabrina
Fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you within 2-3 business days.
All inquiries are confidential.
Crisis Support:
If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room.
Our practice is not equipped for crisis intervention.