Dr. Sarah B. Kirlik, PhD, LCSW, LCAS-A

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in North Carolina with a PhD in counseling and a year of completed medical school training. I have practiced social work over the course of 20 years as a community advocate, professor, psychotherapist, teacher, researcher, the assistant director of a behavioral health department in a rapidly growing CMO in North Carolina and have worked with government officials in countries throughout Africa, regions of India, and Central America as well as almost every contiguous US state. My philosophy about therapy serves as the foundation in which I have learned, built and adapted the particular theories that drive my psychotherapy practice. I believe that we are created as the humans we were meant to be, with our differences, unique skills and abilities, experiences, beliefs, temperaments, weaknesses, limitations etc. by the ONLY perfect and all-knowing being. Thus, we were created by HIM as HE deemed we should be. When we are born, we are born with our value, worth, and purpose otherwise HE would not be "perfect." As humans get increasingly exposed to other people, they begin to recognize that others expect us to act a certain way so, in order to please them, we begin trying to mold our authentic selves into the person others want us to be and this progresses throughout a life time. The more we act according to the expectations of others, the more our genuine selves get buried under the dirt of "shoulds". Society tells us we "should", our parents tell us we "should", our teachers, our bosses, according to what they think you "should" act instead of how you want to act to honor what you think authentically. Therapy is all about sifting through all of the dirt that buried your authentic you, the things that happened to you and the things that happened for you. We then unEarth the genuine you, brush that human off and empower them to live freely and with a dominant voice in the creation of what your "life- worth-living ultimately looks like going forward. Because regardless of how well intended the "shoulds" are provided to you, ultimately You and, only YOU will be walking that journey into your future.