| Sara Hill, Ph.D.
I
completed a Bachelors in Music in 1975, and a Masters in Communications
in 1978, both at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. After completing
the Masters, I taught hearing impaired infants and children and counseled
their parents for seven years. It was during this time I became interested
in in-depth counseling, and decided to become a psychologist. In 1989,
after five years in graduate school in psychology, and a year on internship
in Washington, D.C., I finished a Ph.D. from the University of Texas.
Since
that time, I have been in private practice. For eight years, I also
was a psychologist at the Maricopa County jails, working with detainees
who are mentally ill, and with administrative duties related to Correctional
Health Services at the jails. In that capacity, I was able to see
a lot of patients who had a wide variety of mental illnesses and whose
needs contrasted greatly with the patients I saw in private practice.
For
the last two years, I have been solely in private practice. I work
with both children and adults, and also see couples. Parenting issues
are of interest to me, as are obsessive-compulsive disorders and other
anxiety and depression related disorders. Another special interest
I have is in adolescent issues, and parents' difficulties with adolescents.
Many of my patients are going through life transitions, and need a
place to sort out what is happening in their lives. I also work in
the areas of women's issues, divorce recovery, stress management,
crisis counseling and single parenting.
Psychology
and counseling are fascinating work, and I find the relationships
I have with patients are very satisfying for me. My counseling style
varies from patient to patient, but I mainly am oriented toward cognitively-behavioral
techniques, with an eye at changing people's feelings through looking
at what they believe about their lives. I have found this to be a
very effective way of helping people deal with themselves and with
the rest of the world in a happier, more productive way.
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