About Sarai
Sarai "Christi" Webb-Vanderpoorten is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with three decades of clinical experience. She trained at the University of Southern Mississippi and holds a Master of Science and a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy. She practices in Alabama and brings a direct, caring style to sessions.
Christi views each person in a whole-person way - body, mind, emotions, and spirit. She draws on ideas from addiction counseling, nutrition, and fitness to help people build healthier habits.
Background and approach
In conversation she is warm and understanding, and also straightforward when that helps move things forward. She helps people who struggle with anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, relationship and family stress, grief, eating concerns, body image, and self-esteem. Christi also works with common challenges like communication problems, codependency, control issues, and coping with major life changes.
Her approach aims to help people identify what they want and take concrete steps toward it. In session she mixes practical skills with reflective conversation. Clients can expect goal-focused work that still leaves room for feelings and meaning.
Christi places value on finding purpose and on caring for the body as part of emotional growth. Her background includes work in treatment centers, inpatient settings, and outpatient independent practice since 1993. She brings experience with people facing both short-term crises and longer-term patterns that affect daily life.
Christi integrates her faith into her work when clients want that perspective.
Therapeutic approaches and online access
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening, empathy, and helping people find their own answers; it is useful when someone needs space to sort values and decisions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, teaches practical skills to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and can help with anxiety, depression, and eating concerns. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers skills for managing strong emotions, improving relationships, and reducing impulsive behaviors.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t helped before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust those methods as progress is made.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video works well for in-depth sessions and nonverbal cues. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit into a work break. Live chat or text messaging can be a shorter check-in or a way to track progress between longer appointments. These options make it easier to keep consistent care around a busy life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Mississippi, Alabama
- Languages
- English
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