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About Sarah (she/her/hers)

Rooted in reverence for the infinite ways the soul speaks, my practice invites clients into a process of deep reconnection with the dreams, desires, and inner vitality that illuminate their most authentic selves. Drawing on a unique blend of psychotherapy, mystical traditions, and scientific training, I offer a space of compassionate presence where healing unfolds through curiosity, embodiment, and unconditional love.

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My Philosophy 

I am deeply passionate about creating a space where clients can discover—or rediscover—their connection to their dreams, desires, and passions: those life-giving energies that illuminate us from within, fill us with vitality, and create the natural conditions for compassion and presence to arise effortlessly. For many of us, these inner sparks can feel distant or forgotten, buried beneath layers of disconnection and neglect. The journey toward reclaiming them often invites us to meet long-hidden parts of ourselves—places frozen, silenced, or cast aside for so long that we have lost touch with the aliveness they once carried.

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As we move together through this process of reconnection, we will also gently uncover and tend to what stands in the way: the wounds, psychological symptoms, traumas, shadows, body sensations, multigenerational patterns, and cultural programs that may obscure your access to this natural vitality. This is a process of deep tending, compassionate witnessing, and returning again and again to the wellspring of unconditional love. Within this unfolding, the narratives that have shaped your life are naturally transformed, bringing new meaning to your experiences and allowing you to step more fully into the dynamic, authentic truth of who you are.
 

I hold this work with profound honor and reverence, and walk alongside you with care, curiosity, and deep respect for the unique wisdom within you that unfolds along the way.

My Background and Training 

My ancestral roots trace back to Northern Europe and the Philippine Islands — a lineage that offers me a lived sense of cultural complexity and a flexible capacity to see, feel, and bring love to diverse vantage points. This layered identity shapes how I understand belonging, difference, and the nuanced textures of personal and collective trauma and gifts.
 

I completed my psychotherapy training at Pacifica Graduate Institute, a place where the realms of psyche and soul are held with reverence and care, providing me with a deep foundation for working with the unconscious. Before I found my way into this path, I spent years immersed in the scientific world, earning a doctorate in Molecular Neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley — an experience that honed my critical thinking and deepened my appreciation for the gifts of the intellect.
 

Much of what I bring to my practice also comes from places beyond formal education, including years of training and mentorship in earth-based spiritual practices; permaculture and systems for living in harmony with nature; and feminine lineages of sacred sexuality. These experiences have enriched my life, supported my own healing from trauma, and anchor a life devoted to divine unconditional love. Each of these threads shapes my perspective with a balance of intellectual and embodied wisdom, and, most importantly, instills in me a passion to support others in discovering what awakens their vitality and guides them home to themselves.

Sarah's Publications

Psyche and Soul
 

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  • Reducing Mental Health Stigma in Academia: Assessing the Acceptability of a First‑Person Narrative Program (2025)
    Devendorf AR; Wilson SR.; Ingram WM.
    Psychological Services 

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  • Identifying & Dealing with Burnout in Academia (2022)
    Vvedenskaya, O; Ingram, WM; Wilson-Montemayor, S; Steinberg, R.
    HelloBio

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  • Four Ways Depression Can Physically Affect the Brain (2018)
    Wilson SR
    Healthline

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Neurobiology and Molecular Biology

 

 

  • Silencing of odorant receptor gene expression by G protein βγ signaling ensures the expression of one odorant receptor per olfactory sensory neuron (2014)
    Ferreira T; Wilson SR; Choi YG; Risso DR; Dudoit S; Ngai J.
    Neuron

 

  • Why We Scratch an Itch: The Molecules, Cells and Circuits of Itch (2014)
    Bautista DM; Wilson SR; Hoon MA.
    Nature Neuroscience
     

  • The Epithelial Cell‑Derived Atopic Dermatitis Cytokine TSLP Activates Neurons to Induce Itch (2013)
    Wilson SR; Thé L; Batia LM; Beattie K; Katibah GE; McClain SP; Pellegrino M; Estandian DM; Bautista DM.
    Cell
     

  • Itching for Relief (2013)
    Wilson SR; Bautista DM.
    Nature Neuroscience

 

  • The Ion Channel TRPA1 Is Required for Chronic Itch (2013)
    Wilson SR; Nelson AM; Batia L; Morita T; Estandian D; Owens DM; Lumpkin EA; Bautista DM.
    Journal of Neuroscience

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  • TRPA1 Is Required for Histamine‑Independent, Mas‑Related G Protein‑Coupled Receptor‑Mediated Itch (2011)
    Wilson SR; Gerhold KA; Bifolck‑Fisher A; Liu Q; Patel KN; Dong X; Bautista DM.
    Nature Neuroscience

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  • A Pharmacological Cocktail for Arresting Actin Dynamics in Living Cells (2011)
    Peng GE; Wilson SR; Weiner OD.
    Molecular Biology of the Cell

 

  • Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women (2007)
    Wyart C; Webster WW; Chen JH; Wilson SR; McClary A; Khan RM; Sobel N.
    Journal of Neuroscience

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My Approach

©  Sarah Wilson-Montemayor, M.A., Ph.D. 

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