About
Sara A. Showalter Van Tongeren, is a board certified licensed clinical social worker in the states of Michigan, New York, and Virginia and is a graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work in Richmond, Virginia.
She has co-authored a book titled, The Courage to Suffer as well a peer reviewed theory paper on the Existential Positive Psychology Model of Suffering. Additionally, her blog has over 125,000 readers. She is currently working on a book will be published in 2025 by American Psychological Association on helping clients who are undergoing religious change.
Sara has more than fifteen years of clinical social work experience in settings such as private practice, foster care, inpatient hospitals and outpatient medical clinics, inter-partner violence shelters, and behavioral health. She has a deep passion to help people cultivate a sense of meaning and develop narratives of resilience following trauma, unexpected life events, and religious and spiritual struggles. Sara specializes in trauma and attachment focused therapy, mindfulness, existential psychotherapy, narrative therapy, liberation psychology, brainspotting, and acceptance commitment therapy.
Sara won the 2020 Social Justice Award given by the City of Holland for her work in helping to pass the city’s first Non-Discrimination Ordinance.
Currently, she provides consultant services in two areas world-wide:
clinical consultation
private practice business consultation.
In addition to consulting services, Sara is the founder of The Flourishing Collective, a Telehealth-based group practice. Sara primarily works with female identifying adults who are wanting to rediscover their identity and increase their own sense of empowerment. Often Sara’s clients are at a crossroad brought on by suffering. Sara works from an existential-positive psychology framework that is trauma and attachment focused, and utilizes somatic based healing through Brainspotting. If you are interested in working with Sara via Telehealth or a therapist wanting to join The Flourishing Collective, please fill out the contact form.