About Susan
Susan Davis is a California-licensed marriage and family therapist with 35 years of clinical experience. She works with people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress or anxiety and helps them find clearer ways to cope. Her approach is warm and respectful, and she focuses on what each person needs in the moment.
In sessions she listens first, then tailors conversations and goals to fit the person in front of her.
Background and approach
She draws on ways of working that help people understand patterns in relationships and daily life. Practical tools are used alongside deeper discussion about feelings and history. Her background includes independent practice work and teaching roles at three universities.
She also created and ran a training program for marriage and family therapy interns, and supervised psychiatric residents during their therapy training. She has coauthored two books on community mental health. Susan emphasizes sensitivity and compassion in her work.
She invites people to name what matters most to them and to try small changes that make life more manageable. She encourages anyone taking the first step toward therapy and helps them move forward at a steady pace. People often seek her help for relationship strain, parenting concerns, grief and loss, intimacy issues, and coping with life changes.
Her long experience means she can offer a range of conversational and practical strategies to address those concerns.
Approaches that fit into online therapy
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early and current relationships shape feelings and behavior. It helps people understand emotional patterns and build safer connections with others. Client-Centered Therapy puts the person’s experience at the center; the therapist listens without judgment and follows the client's lead to help clarify goals and make choices that feel right. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and is often used for anxiety and stress.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has or has not helped before. That conversation guides which methods are tried first and how they are adjusted over time, so the plan stays practical and collaborative.
Online sessions can include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to match different needs. Video is useful for deeper conversation and visual cues, phone calls can fit a break at work or reduce bandwidth needs, and chat or messaging supports short check-ins and ongoing coaching between meetings. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around busy schedules and life changes.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her general therapeutic style?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
Can people outside the U.S. work with her?
What formats are available for sessions?
How are costs and scheduling handled?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Intimacy-related issues
- Parenting issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.