Sara A. Showalter Van Tongeren, LCSW
Founder, The Flourishing Collective
Sara is the founder of The Flourishing Collective and provides biweekly case consultation to TheFloCo team. She is co-author of The Courage to Suffer and co-author of the forthcoming book Sacred Unraveling: A Therapist’s Guide to Helping Clients Navigate Religious and Spiritual Change (August 2026). Sara has also contributed scholarly and theoretical work exploring the Existential Positive Psychology Model of Suffering and a model for Existential Hope.
Sara is a board certified therapist that is licensed in New York, Michigan, and Virginia who specializes in trauma, attachment focused therapy, mindfulness, existential psychotherapy, narrative therapy, liberation psychology, brainspotting, and relational psychoanalysis. She is a certified Brainspotting practitioner.
Sara work with adults who find themselves at identity crossroads often shaped by experiences of suffering, loss, transition, or spiritual change. She supports clients in reconnecting with their sense of self, deepening empowerment, and cultivating meaningful, values-driven lives. Sara also specializes in working with helping professionals, including therapists, physicians, and clergy, who are navigating burnout, identity development, or vocational and existential questions.
Sara’s therapeutic approach is grounded in an existential-positive psychology framework that honors both suffering and flourishing as essential parts of the human experience, while remaining deeply relational, trauma-informed, and attachment-centered.
Sara was honored with the 2020 Social Justice Award from the City of Holland, Michigan for her leadership in helping pass the city’s first Non-Discrimination Ordinance.
Licensed in Michigan, New York, and Virginia
email: sara@theflourishingco.org