Sara Bagramian Thatcher is the owner and founder of Oak City Counseling. Sara is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Trauma Specialist, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor and Registered Yoga Teacher, with over 20 years of experience in the mental health field, specializing in Play Therapy for children aged birth-12, talk therapy/creative expression with tweens/teens and parent support/coaching.
Sara is a proud single parent who enjoys supporting other single caregivers as they navigate separation, divorce and parenting issues in this season of life and regularly provides therapy/parent coaching in these situations.
Sara is one of 14 therapists in Raleigh who have obtained the Registered Play Therapist (RPT) credential, which requires 150 hours of play therapy training and 50 hours of play therapy supervision.
Ms. Bagramian is one of 6 therapists in Raleigh who have obtained the Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S) credential. This credential is the highest level of certification offered by the Association for Play Therapy and consists of an additional 3000 hours of clinical experience, an additional 500 hours of direct play therapy experience and 30 hours of supervisor training. This credential allows Sara to supervise other practicing play therapists to achieve their RPT credential.
Sara is one of three therapists in Wake County (and the only therapist in Raleigh) who have received the Certified Trauma Practitioner certification from the National Institute of Trauma and Loss in Children.
Sara has completed Level 1 and Level 2 advanced training in Theraplay®, an Evidence Based intervention which is an attachment based therapy. Theraplay is a fun and engaging technique which involves both parent and child and helps to improve the parent/child bond while also restructuring the parent/child relationship. Theraplay is utilized for behavior issues in children including aggression and defiance and is also effective for children who have experienced trauma or who have been adopted.
Ms. Bagramian is trained in Level 1 and Level 2 of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) by its founder, Dan Hughes and Dafna Lender, expert DDP and Theraplay trainer. DDP incorporates attachment, neurobiology and trauma and provides a powerful framework for healing the parent/child relationship through its tenets of Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE).
Sara has completed a six month course on Synergetic Play Therapy® (SPT) and is completing the intensive process of becoming a Certified Synergetic Play Therapist®. SPT is a way of incorporating ones own regulatory nervous system into the process of play therapy with children to assist in emotional regulation. This revolutionary technique incorporates interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, nervous system regulation and mindfulness into the play therapy process.
Ms. Bagramian regularly incorporates the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI) into treatment with children/parents as a more in depth method of evaluating and understanding how parenting styles and early experiences from a parent’s own childhood can affect their current relationship with their child. This method often allows for parents to heal from their own early childhood wounds and is extremely effective. Sara believes that relational work between parent/child is more comprehensive, healing and transformative than traditional behavioral interventions such as charts, time-outs, counting, etc. as healing and uncovering underlying relational issues can repair the relationship permanently and are unique to each parent and child.
Sara consults with community agencies, physicians and schools in regards to play therapy and trauma interventions for children. Additionally, Sara often presents about play therapy for University classes and provides training and supervision for therapists who are interested in learning about play therapy and child mental health.
Ms. Bagramian has completed training to provide forensic evaluations through the Child Medical Evaluation Program at UNC-Chapel Hill which evaluates abuse and neglect in North Carolina however she does not currently participate in the program nor does she provide forensic work at this time.
Sara completed 220 hours of Yoga Teacher Training and became a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) in 2017. She then went on to complete a specialized Children’s Yoga Teacher Training and Teaching Mindfulness to Tweens and Teens course.
Ms. Bagramian created Oak City Counseling in 2007 as an individual private practice and began growing the practice in 2013 to include additional clinicians. Sara is devoted to the practice as both a teaching/mentoring space for clinicians to learn and grow as play therapists and also to provide the community with knowledgeable and competent child therapists.
Sara provides ongoing training and support to clinicians within the practice in addition to professionals within the community in the fields of child mental health, parenting and play therapy.
Ms. Bagramian provides clinical supervision to Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associates pursuing licensure, those pursuing the Registered Play Therapist (RPT) credential and is a Qualified Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor for LCMHC-Associates in the state of NC.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, University of Michigan
Master of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Licenses, Certifications & Awards
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, State of North Carolina, 2005
Certified Child Family Evaluation Forensic Evaluator, 2009
Theraplay® Level 1 and Marschak Interaction Method (MIM), 2010
Association for Play Therapy Leadership Academy Graduate, 2011
Registered Play Therapist, 2013
Certified Trauma Specialist, 2013
Theraplay® Level 2 and Marschak Interaction Method (MIM), 2016
Registered Yoga Teacher-200 hr, 2017
Children’s Yoga Teacher Training-2017
Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor-2018
Dyadic Development Psychotherapy (DDP), Level 1-2020
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Level 2-2021
Intro to Synergetic Play Therapy®-2020-2021
Certification program in Synergetic Play Therapy®-2021-current
Qualified Licensed Mental Health Counselor Supervisor-2022
Professional Activities and Memberships
Association For Play Therapy Member 2008-present
Consultant and contributor in article ‘Attitude Adjustment, Raising Respectful Kids’, Carolina Parent Magazine, March 2015
Haven House Services, Board Member – 2011-2013
National Association for Play Therapy, Leadership Academy Graduate, 2013
Author of Article ‘How Can Play Therapy Help?’ in On The Record Magazine, 2011
Author of Article ‘Helping Children Cope with Divorce’ in On The Record Magazine, 2012
Member of Wake County School Based Mental Health team: 2004-2007
Member of Yoga Alliance: 2017-present
Member of National Association of Social Workers (NASW): 2014-present
Lectures and Presentations
- General Overview of Play Therapy Methods with Children: Arapgir Center for Children and Families, 10/2009, Yerevan, Armenia.
- Child Centered Play Therapy Theories and Methods: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, School of Social Work guest lecture 11/2009, Chapel Hill, NC.
- Play Therapy Methods with Children including Directive and Non-Directive Techniques: EasterSeals UCP Mental Health Division, 12/2009, Raleigh, NC.
- Play Therapy Basics and Working with Traumatized Children: Carolina Mental Health Center, 03/2011, Raleigh, NC.
- Theraplay® Techniques: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 09/2011, Charlotte, NC.
- Theraplay® Techniques and Legal/Ethical Issues in Play Therapy: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 09/2012, Charlotte, NC.
- Theraplay® Techniques and Legal/Ethical Issues in Play Therapy: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 09/2013, Charlotte, NC.
- Helping Traumatized Children: EasterSeals UCP, Foster Care Division, 04/2014, Raleigh, NC.
- Theraplay® Techniques: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 11/2015, Charlotte, NC
- Theraplay® Techniques: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 11/2017, Charlotte, NC
- Theraplay® Techniques: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 11/2019, Charlotte, NC
- Theraplay® Techniques: UNC-Charlotte, Contemporary Theories of Play Therapy Graduate Course, College of Education Multicultural Play Therapy Center Counseling Department, 11/2021, Charlotte, NC
Sara is not currently accepting new clients