About SarahAbout Sarah Cushing, Registered PsychotherapistTherapy as a collaborative, human relationship.
I'm Sarah Cushing, a relational psychotherapist and the founder of Liminal Bloom. My work is shaped by my own healing, my history as a competitive athlete, and a deep belief that we do not recover alone. I see clients in person at 100 Centrepointe in Nepean/Ottawa and virtually across Ontario.
The space between no longer and not yet.
The word liminal refers to a threshold - an in-between state where the old form has dissolved but the new one has not yet fully arrived. It is often uncomfortable, disorienting, and profoundly alive. My own healing journey has been a series of these thresholds: moments when I had to let go of an old way of being before I could discover what might come next.
I built Liminal Bloom because I wanted a practice name that honored that process. So much of therapy is not about fixing what is broken but about making room for what is emerging. The bloom is not the end point; it is the evidence that something tender was able to grow in the dark.
Reclaiming the body as a place to come home to.
I came to this work, in part, through my own body. As a former competitive athlete, I learned early to relate to my body as something to optimize, discipline, and perform with - a machine whose worth was measured by output. That relationship took its toll: disconnection, rigidity, and a quiet belief that my body was a problem to be solved rather than a self to be inhabited.
Reclaiming movement as pleasure, expression, rest, and communication became a core part of my healing. It taught me that the body is not separate from the mind, and that so much of what we call anxiety, shame, or stuckness lives in tissue, breath, gesture, and posture. This lived experience deeply informs my work with eating disorders, body image distress, trauma, and the mind-body split.
No one heals in a vacuum.
My background in anthropology and sociology taught me to look beyond the individual. We are shaped by the families, communities, cultures, and systems of power we move through - by norms around bodies, gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, success, and worth.
In therapy, I bring that lens into the room with curiosity and care. We may explore the stories you have inherited about who you should be, the structures that have informed what feels possible for you, and the ways you have had to adapt in order to survive. Understanding these contexts can soften shame and restore a sense of agency.
We will laugh, cry, and maybe get angry - together.
I am a relational therapist, which means the relationship between us matters. I do not sit silently behind a blank screen. I am present, responsive, and real. Therapy with me is a conversation between two humans, not a clinical performance.
I emphasize empowerment and agency. You are the expert on your own life. My role is to support you in strengthening your voice, your boundaries, and your capacity to choose. The work is collaborative: we move at your pace, with attention to safety, consent, and nervous system regulation.
However you show up - guarded, grieving, hopeful, furious, numb, or somewhere in between - you are welcome here. All of it can be held in this space.
Grounded in study, shaped by lived experience.
Trainings
- EMDR - basic training completed with an EMDRIA-approved training program; EMDR-trained clinician
- Introduction to Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (ATMA Cena)
- Advanced Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (ATMA Cena)
- Roots of Healing - Psilocybin Facilitator Training (Gaia Wellness, in progress)
Informed by
Continuing education in IFS, Polyvagal, CPT, CBT-E, ACT, and DBT-informed practices.
If something here resonates,reach out.
Consultations are complimentary and held over a brief phone call, to see whether we feel like a fit for the work ahead. In-person sessions are held at 100 Centrepointe in Nepean/Ottawa; virtual sessions are available across Ontario.