Discover the Support That Fits Your Path

At Sierra Family Therapy Centers, we offer EMDR and Brainspotting as gentle, brain‑based approaches that support your natural capacity to heal. Both modalities help the mind and body process experiences that may feel stuck, allowing you to move toward greater ease, clarity, and emotional balance.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess distressing memories and integrate healthier beliefs. Many people experience EMDR as a grounding way to soften old patterns, reduce emotional overwhelm, and reconnect with a sense of inner steadiness.

Brainspotting works with the idea that where you look can connect to where emotional or physical tension is held. By finding specific eye positions linked to deeper experiences, Brainspotting helps release stored stress and supports healing in a calm, focused, and attuned way. Many clients find it pairs beautifully with EMDR, offering another pathway into the body’s natural wisdom.

Both approaches honor your pace and your story. They invite you to settle, breathe, and gently reconnect with the parts of yourself that are ready to grow, heal, and move forward.

Sierra Sparks, owner and director of Sierra Family Therapy Centers, previously served as Clinical Director at a residential treatment center for children with significant emotional and behavioral needs.

Seeing your child struggle can be overwhelming. Children often express distress through behavior rather than words—whether that looks like big emotions, sadness, social challenges, or difficulties at school. With the right support, meaningful change is absolutely possible.

I work with children and families using the Nurtured Heart Approach and evidence‑based behavioral interventions. We also support concerns such as depression, social difficulties, grief, and trauma through child‑adapted EMDR, play therapy, and other developmentally attuned methods.

Parents are essential partners in the process.  

I offer parent coaching sessions and groups, and when helpful, I can provide in‑home observation and guidance on a case‑by‑case basis.

My goal is to help children build confidence, strengthen emotional regulation, and develop skills that support long‑term success.

Common areas of focus include:

• Building confidence

• Improving school performance

• Coping with stress

• Strengthening self‑control

• Enhancing communication

• Understanding and addressing challenging behaviors

We also offer in‑home intensive counseling and behavior support for families needing more hands‑on intervention.

The teenage years are a time of rapid change, big emotions, and important decisions. Therapy offers teens a grounded space to make sense of who they are, where they’re headed, and how to navigate the challenges around them. In counseling, teens are encouraged to explore their relationships, strengthen their sense of self, and build lifelong skills for healthy decision‑making.

Therapy can support teens with:

• Building self‑esteem

• Navigating peer pressure

• Improving relationships with parents and friends

• Managing anxiety and stress

• Working through depression

• Understanding personal and developmental changes

At Sierra Family Therapy Centers, we partner closely with teens and their families to create a treatment plan that truly fits their needs. We collaborate with parents while maintaining your teen’s confidentiality, ensuring a balance of support, trust, and therapeutic privacy.

Our work with couples is grounded in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) and IMAGO, both rooted in attachment theory. These approaches help partners understand the deeper emotions and unmet needs that drive reactions such as anger, fear, withdrawal, or disconnection. Together, we explore healthier ways to communicate, reconnect, and meet each other’s needs through compassion, curiosity, and secure emotional attachment.

Relationships can be one of the most rewarding—and most challenging—parts of adult life. When partners differ in what they think, feel, or need, conflict naturally arises. Because our relationships matter so deeply, these moments can feel threatening, painful, or overwhelming.

Many couples find themselves stuck in one of two patterns:

• Losing themselves by accommodating their partner’s needs at the expense of their own, leading to resentment and disconnection.

• Digging in and defending, which protects the self but erodes closeness, creating cycles of arguments, distance, and hurt.

Our role as couples therapists is to help you step out of these painful cycles and into patterns that foster safety, understanding, and connection. We create a space where both partners feel heard and respected, and we guide you in learning tools that support healthier communication, deeper intimacy, and more satisfying solutions to recurring challenges.

Couples therapy isn’t only for times of crisis—it can also strengthen your bond, increase passion, and deepen your connection long before major issues arise.

Pre‑marital counseling is also available.

For more information on attachment‑based couples work, visit:  

www.holdmetight.net

Sierra offers family therapy both in home and in our office in Grass Valley, Nevada City, Auburn, Colfax and Roseville. Family systems counseling suggests that therapy based on family-systems principles is more likely to produce desired lasting change than working solely with individuals. The goal of family therapy is for family members to understand and accept their individual responsibility in the emotional functioning of the family unit. By learning to recognize the emotional patterns and how anxiety (and other emotions) are handled in the family, individual members can manage themselves in healthier functional ways. Exploring your family history is an exciting way to gain insight about yourself and your family members. 

Our focus is to help you address the concerns that brought you here and to support you in creating a life that feels grounded, meaningful, and aligned with who you are. We begin by clarifying your goals, then work together using gentle, effective, and evidence‑informed approaches to activate the natural strengths and resilience already within you. As you grow, you move beyond old patterns and step into greater freedom, clarity, and self‑trust.

Common areas of focus include:  

• Depression, anxiety, and stress  

• Building intimacy and trust in relationships  

• Strengthening self‑esteem  

• Developing healthy boundaries  

• Navigating grief, loss, and loneliness  

• Improving interpersonal relationships  

• Addressing career or life‑direction conflicts  

• Trauma work, including EMDR  

• Healing childhood wounds  

• Support for eating‑related concerns  

• Effective communication and anger expression  

• Developing healthy emotional expression  

• Money and power struggles  

• Addictive or compulsive behaviors  

• Early, mid, and late‑life transitions  

• Exploring purpose and meaning  

• Reconnecting with creativity, spontaneity, and joy

…and much more.on