Sara Marlowe, Couple Therapist Ontario Nova Scotia & New Brunswick
Relationships can be hard.
You don’t have to navigate them alone.
I am here to help.
Welcome to We Can Relate, the online home for Sara Marlowe’s psychotherapy practice. Here, you’ll find information on Sara’s services, including individual, couples, and parent therapy, parenting, educator, and clinician workshops, author speaks, mindful self-compassion training, and mindfulness for children and families.
I am a registered social worker, providing individual, couple and family counselling for over 15 years. My early experience was working with children and families in a variety of mental health agencies, offering both counselling and mindfulness programs for all age groups. Currently, I work online with individuals, couples, and families who reside in Ontario and Nova Scotia, supporting people to strengthen and heal relationships; both with others and with themselves. I also love facilitating workshops and clinician trainings and have received feedback that I am a dynamic presenter, no doubt influenced by a short stint as a cruise ship performer.
I am a mother of two delightful children, who invite me to reflect (and hopefully) grow everyday. I share this parenting journey with my partner of 30 years, and our ginger cat (who is a great teacher of both empathy and patience). I love making music, brewing really good coffee, bike rides – especially in the fall, planning family adventures, and writing stories.
Sara Marlowe Couple Therapy Relationship Therapy
With all of the exciting developments in neuroscience in recent years, I am passionate about staying current in my psychotherapy practice. This has led me to continuously update my skills through the latest evidence-based interventions in relationships, trauma, attachment and neurobiology. I am a certified practitioner in DARe (dynamic attachment repatterning experience) developed by Diane Pool Heller. I have completed Level 2 in PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples therapy) and Level 3 in Gottman method couple’s therapy. I am a trained facilitator in the popular Gottman workshops: “Bringing Baby Home,” for new and expecting parents and “The 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work.” I have training in EFFT (emotion-focused family therapy), EFT (Emotion-focused therapy) and healing from inherited family trauma. Finally, my roots are in narrative therapy, a social justice-based approach that looks at the systematic ways people are oppressed, and the resilience and resistance people bring in their lives so that they may live closer to their values.
I am a certified mindful self-compassion teacher through the University of San Diego (UCSD) and have taken teacher training in MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy), MARS-A (mindful awareness and resilience skills for adolescents) and MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction). I have developed and facilitated numerous mindfulness programs for children, adolescents, parents and families in mental health, school, hospital, and community settings.
Lastly, I contribute to our field through authorship as well, with four children’s books: No Ordinary Apple: A Story about Eating Mindfully, My New Best Friend, which introduces self-compassion, The Inside Flashlight, which playfully teaches emotion regulation skills to children and No Ordinary Pizza: A Story about Interconnection. I am the co-creator of Mindful Monkey Magazine: Connecting Families Through Practice & Play, and the author of the chapter Supporting Young Children Visited by Big Emotions: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation and Neurobiology, in Collaborative Therapy and Neurobiology: Evolving Practices in Action (Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin and Jim Duvall, eds.).
Masters of Social Work
MSW, RSW, registered to provide services in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
PACT - Level 2
Developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples) is a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation. PACT has a reputation for effectively treating the most challenging couples.
DARe Certified (Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience)
The DARe approach combines attachment theory with neuroscience and trauma-informed therapy to help clients create healthier relationships. I am an approved provider of DARe personal sessions for students in the DARe training program, a necessary requirement in the DARe certification process.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy: Level 3
Gottman method therapy was developed after decades of cutting edge research on couples' relationships in the infamous "love lab" in Seattle. The goals of Gottman Method Couples Therapy are to increase closeness and friendship behaviours; address conflict more productively, and build a life of shared meaning.
Sara is authorized to invite couples to complete the Gottman Relationship Checkup , an online couples assessment tool that scores a relationship’s strengths and challenges and provides specific recommendations for intervention.
MSC - UCSD Centre for Mindfulness
I am a certified mindful self-compassion (MSC) teacher through the UCSD Centre for Mindfulness
Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
Sara has training in Emotion-focused family therapy, both with parents and groups. In EFFT, caregivers are supported to develop and practice skills, to support their loved one’s mental health and well-being, including navigating emotions and relationship repair.
Over 15 years experience supporting individuals, couples, and families, in private practice, hospital, and community agency settings.
Sara Marlowe Education
With all of the exciting developments in neuroscience in recent years, I am passionate about staying current in my psychotherapy practice.
Professional Experience & Training
With all of the exciting developments in neuroscience in recent years, I am passionate about staying current in my psychotherapy practice.
Masters of Social Work
MSW, RSW, registered to provide services in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
PACT - Level 2
Developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples) is a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation. PACT has a reputation for effectively treating the most challenging couples.
DARe - Certified
The DARe method combines attachment theory with neuroscience and trauma-informed therapy to help clients create healthier relationships.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy and Level 3 in Gottman Therapy
The goals of Gottman Method Couples Therapy are to disarm conflicting verbal communication; increase intimacy, respect, and affection; remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy; and create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.
Sara is authorized to invite couples to complete the Gottman Relationship Checkup , an online couples assessment tool that scores a relationship’s strengths and challenges and provides specific recommendations for intervention.
MSC - UCSD Centre for Mindfulness
I am a certified mindful self-compassion (MSC) teacher through the UCSD Centre for Mindfulness
Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
Sara has training in Emotion-focused family therapy, both with parents and groups. In EFFT, caregivers are supported to develop and practice skills, to support their loved one’s mental health and well-being, including navigating emotions and relationship repair.
Over 15 years experience supporting individuals, couples, and families, in private practice, hospital, and community agency settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Whether you are new to therapy or continuing on your helaing journey, you’ll likely have questions about what to expect:
A PACT therapist will:
- focus on moment-to-moment shifts in your face, body, and voice, and ask you to pay close attention to these as a couple.
- create experiences similar to those troubling your relationship and help you work through them in real time during the session.
PACT sessions often exceed the 50-min hour and may last as long as 3–6 hours. Longer times allow for the in-depth work of PACT. With your consent, a PACT therapist may videotape sessions to provide immediate feedback to you.
