Nice to meet you!
I’m Sarah, and I’m a research consultant specialing in mental health and wellbeing. Throughout my career, my work has focused around young people, whether that be hands-on mentoring and leading programs, speaking in high schools, or researching and writing.
I live in a beautiful beachside town in Western Australia. I’ve been married to Joel for sixteen years, and together we have five kids, a boisterous brown dog, and a handful of chickens.
When I finished high school, I signed up for a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). I completed most of my undergraduate studies part-time so that I could focus on my passion: youth work. For six years, I ran a youth program at a public high school and church, reaching out to the local community. I developed a strong team of adult and student leaders. As a big sister to many young people, I had the privilege of walking through the highs and lows with kids, teens, and families in the local community. Drawing on my experience working with young people, I began researching self-harm in high schools during my Honours project which included 1,100 teenagers and was published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The end of my degree marked a shift in seasons: motherhood and developing my research career. I received an APA scholarship to fund my Psychology PhD researching self-harm in young people. My research projects included over 1,500 high school students and 200+ university students, as well as analysing data from a longitudinal study of 5,700 young adult women in the community. I published my research in four peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as sharing my findings from my PhD in an article on the Conversation, blog posts, and media such as a podcast and radio interview.
I now work as a research consultant, and I help organisations tell their story. I am passionate about real-world research that captures people’s stories and experiences. I believe in the power of story-telling and sharing our findings in ways that meaningfully contribute to a global conversation.
