About — The Liminal Mind

Sara Mathew

Therapist, Coach & Founder of The Liminal Mind

I've started over more times than makes sense on a resume.

Finance, fashion, banking, startups — each move made sense on paper, and each one was also me chasing something I couldn't quite name yet.

The startup years gave me a lot; the feeling of building something real, the particular aliveness you only get in those early stages, the buzz of constant pressure and success. They also gave me a burnout I didn't see coming. Not because I was working too hard. Because I had no idea what was driving me.

I left without a job lined up. Traveled the world. Experimented with my career. Started over more than once. Moved across an ocean without knowing a soul. But it wasn't until I went back to school for my masters in social work that I finally began to understand what had actually been happening: I kept moving without understanding my own motivations, without bothering to ponder them. The restlessness wasn't random. It was information I didn't know how to read.

That's what brought me to this work, and what I bring into the room with every client.

I'm a therapist, and I still do fractional work with early-stage founders. I'm also a partner, a daughter, a friend, a writer, a traveler, a die-hard NY sports fan. For a long time, the ambition overshadowed everything else. Learning to live as a whole person (and discovering who that person actually is) has been both the hardest and most important work I've done.

If you built your whole life around the pursuit — achievement, excellence, becoming — and woke up one day feeling nothing, I think I can help.

Background

Education & Licensure

Licensing

Coming LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker), New York — expected May/June 2026

Coming ASW, California — expected June 2026

Coming LSW, Hawaii — expected June 2026

I am working toward my LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), which requires supervised practice hours after licensure. This is standard in the field and does not limit the depth or quality of the work.

How I work

Always All sessions via telehealth — online only, no in-person

Therapy Currently waitlisting in New York, California, and Hawaii

Coaching Available anywhere, now

The Philosophy

Understanding yourself is not a soft goal. It is the work.

High performers are often convinced they are the most self-aware people in the room. And in many ways, they are. They can diagnose what went wrong, articulate the pattern, optimize the process. What they're less practiced at is understanding why the pattern keeps showing up in the first place. Analysis and self-knowledge are not the same thing.

That gap is where burnout lives. The usual advice at that point is to slow down, set boundaries, rest more. Those things matter. But they don't touch the deeper question: why you built your entire identity around the pursuit in the first place. What you were trying to prove. What you're afraid happens if you stop.

This is enlightenment work. Beyond the what and the how, to the why. The self-knowledge you build here doesn't fix one problem and disappear. You carry it forward, into every part of who you are.

The goal isn't to make you less ambitious. It's to make sure that the next time you chase something, the reason aligns with who you actually are.

A therapist who comes from your world.

Education & Licensure

Understanding yourself is not a soft goal. It is the work.

If you recognize yourself in this work, reach out.