Susan Van Wazer

Susan Van Wazer is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with three decades of experience. She offers a calm, down-to-earth presence for people facing stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, addiction, grief, and women's issues. Susan aims to make first steps feel manageable and straightforward for anyone who reaches out.

Susan emphasizes how patterns in family life and relationships shape current struggles. She uses family systems ideas to look at those patterns and where they began. She pairs that with cognitive behavioral therapy, helping people identify unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors to create change.

Susan also supports people who carry wounds from traumatic childhood experiences and those working toward recovery from psychological trauma. Her approach is practical - she helps people notice repeating patterns, name what gets in the way, and try new ways of coping. Mindfulness and existential perspectives sometimes appear in sessions to help people find meaning and stay present.

Her background includes program development, supervising other therapists, and handling administrative responsibilities such as grants and events. She has worked in both large urban centers and small towns across the country, which informs a flexible, realistic approach to everyday life challenges.

Susan works with people across a wide range of concerns, including career questions, parenting strain, codependency, midlife transitions, social anxiety, and compassion fatigue. She welcomes international clients and conducts work in English.

How Susan’s approaches translate to online therapy

Susan draws on client-centered work and cognitive behavioral therapy in her practice. Client-centered therapy emphasizes listening, validation, and meeting each person where they are; it helps when someone needs a supportive space to talk through feelings and choices. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on spotting thoughts and patterns that keep people stuck and trying small behavior changes to see different results; it is useful for anxiety, depression, and habit shifts.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. Susan collaborates with clients to decide which methods fit their needs and goals. She will check in about what feels helpful and adjust techniques over time so sessions stay practical and relevant.

Confirm the available online session options before booking, as formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life by reducing travel time and allowing sessions during a lunch break or from another convenient location. It can also let people choose shorter check-ins when needed and avoid the need to be on camera for every meeting. Licensed professionals can still use these approaches effectively at a distance, focusing on clear goals, homework between sessions, and steady progress.