Sara B. Pournoor, MSW, LICSW

Sara is a licensed clinical social worker and the new Director of Counseling here at Macalester. He comes to us from the University of Minnesota’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual & Gender Health as well as a previous adjunct professor in the Masters of Social Work program at Augsburg University. His approach comes from an anti-oppressive, disability, and healing justice lens aimed towards creating a collaborative and authentic space to foster radical holistic healing. The theoretical framework Sara draws from are rooted in relational and narrative trauma informed care along with dialectical behavioral therapy, somatic experiencing, and others when appropriate. He believes that mental health and healing are connected to one’s personal and social ecosystem, attachment history, somatic awareness, values, and intersecting identities.

Sara integrates his professional training and therapeutic skills with lived experience as a queer, trans masculine, non-binary, second generation immigrant, and person of color. Additionally, they belong to the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and the National Association for Social Workers.

Sara has a background in curriculum development, social justice education, youth work, music performance, private music instruction, interfaith dialogue, inpatient mental health, outpatient mental health, crisis stabilization, and medical social work. Sara received a clinical Master of Social Work from Augsburg College and a Bachelor’s in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.