Sara C. Gifford, MFT 2680 Bayshore Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

"I’m the one who wrote a long review 5 days ago and rated 2 stars. (Please see lower part of this review.) I thought about the consequence of my low rating to Sara’s therapy business -- I changed to 3 stars because I do not mean to harm her business. Obviously there are some people who like her method/style. Also, I remembered that a couple months ago she asked us if her sessions were working. Now I think I just couldn’t think straight then, so we ended up continuing. As I wrote 5 days ago, my former long comments (please see below) are my honest review. Also, I agreed with a couple points some former negative reviews pointed out. Sara invited one more session to give us referrals, etc. We declined because I don’t want to drag this down-feeling any more. On top of it, we are paying for another session!? – which didn’t make sense. I’m not that masochist. Re: referrals, we doubt she knows 180-opposite upbeat tech-minded therapists. ----- Below this line is what I wrote 5 days ago ------------- This is an honest review about Sara, a [couple] therapist. She is a good individual therapist. She knows how to show empathy during individual therapy sessions. But not for couple therapy. At least, not for me. After a month or so with her sessions, my depression got worse. Especially the day after her session, my depression used to hit bottom. It became a weekly event for me. First, I tried to take it positively, like, “Wow.. Her session must be so powerful and I’m getting the strong reaction from her session.” Then, after a couple months, I couldn’t take it no more. Making an excuse that I became busy (actually I became busy), I quit going to her couple therapy session for a month. It was a good break for me. Then, I rested and back to her session again. And realized that her couple therapy session was simply not working out. We regressed. I realized, clearly, that, she took my problem “light” and I was physically there but psychologically been ignored in her session. I appreciate her perspective of [something deep beneath the words] – I get it and appreciate it. But please do not ignore the problem that I brought in the very 1st session. I addressed it a couple time but the subject/topic been changed in the session before I can talk. -- I kept the ‘unresolved’ feeling for a while and I cannot take it no more. After I rested, I think I’m not that depressed, so I try to transform the energy (which was caused from being upset) to better. Because of our insurance changes, we needed to look for a new couple therapist and met Sara. I think, she’s good with [gentle] and [side-way] approach. I understand there are tons of things to be fixed among us. But I didn’t want to be distracted from the core of the problem. What I need is more [straight to the point] approach. I learned that her approach is Jungian, which is traditional. My problem is backed by the statistics of 1,000+ couples study by a university. I live now, not Jung’s period. I wanted to discuss/tackle the problems in the couple therapy, in the way we used to with former therapists. I wanted to see the problem from different points of view and discuss from different perspectives, and tackle the problem straight forward. The problem was left without being tackled, dragged to present. Our communication hasn’t improved either. It's regressed. Thus, I didn’t work out with Sara. But if I take the situation positively, it was good that I realized what character I need to look for in couple therapists next time. I wonder if I wasted in this 6+ months? When I think of it, I’m upset/frustrated – emotionally I want to rate one star. But, at the same time, it was my fault that I didn’t have energy and guts to stop her session sooner. Therefore; 2 stars. I needed to write this review to go on my life. I need to change my environment. Thank you for reading my review this far. Sincerely."

"I agreed with the other reviewer that Sarah is not a good marriage counselor, at least for my marriage. She might have the attention to save your marriage, but her knowledge for the task would do more harm than good. I wish I had known better. This is a sincere review with the hope that she can improve herself in marriage counseling. Personally Sarah is a nice person to talk to."

"Thank You Sara Gifford!!! If it wasn't for you and your beautiful work I'm not sure that my husband and me would still be together. She helped us to understand each other by asking deep and insightful questions which got us to talk to each other again in a loving way. We somehow lost sight of each other and Sara helped us to see what it was that made us fall for each other in the first place. Everything is not perfect all of the the time of course, but now we have tools to work through those hard times that we didn't have before She's very professional, very amiable and was so invaluable to us."

"I have years of experience with Sara as a therapist. I find her to be highly knowledgeable about relationships with great insights into creating healing and rebooting closeness and intimacy. Thank you Sara."

"Sara might be a good individual counselor but she's terrible at couple counseling. She doesn't seem to read many books in the area and has never heard of common terms in an affair and thus she doesn't seem to understand the feeling of both sides, especially the betrayed spouse. Famous books like 5 language of love, Not just Friend, she's never heard of!"