About Susan
Susan Shouse is a licensed social worker with 26 years of experience. She helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, depression, addiction, or major life changes. Her style is warm and straightforward, aimed at practical steps people can use right away.
She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space where someone can talk through painful memories, current worries, or confusing decisions. Sessions often focus on what is happening now and what small changes might help.
Background and approach
Susan uses clear language and collaborative planning so clients leave with tangible next steps. Her work spans many concerns including relationships, identity and LGBT issues, grief, trauma and abuse, and challenges with sleep, eating, or anger. She also supports people dealing with caregiving stress, chronic illness, addiction, and career or life transitions.
Susan pays attention to how health, family roles, and everyday pressures interact. Susan draws on approaches that emphasize the person’s strengths and practical problem solving. She blends client-centered support with techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness to reshape unhelpful thinking and build coping skills.
Motivational interviewing and solution-focused work help when people need to set and reach short-term goals. Clients in Michigan can expect a straightforward, compassionate therapist who prioritizes real-world results. She works collaboratively to tailor a plan that fits each person’s pace and values.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Susan uses client-centered work that focuses on the person’s priorities and strengths. This approach means sessions begin with what matters most to the client and build on existing resources to tackle stress, anxiety, or life changes.She also draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, which looks at thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CBT gives clear tools to challenge unhelpful thinking and to practice new habits between sessions. Mindfulness-based techniques are used to teach simple breathing and attention exercises that reduce reactivity and help with sleep, anxiety, and emotional regulation.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods feel most useful. Goals, preferences, and pace guide those choices so the plan fits the client rather than forcing a single method.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect, including video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging. Video is useful for deeper exchanges where visual cues matter. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a session needs to fit a lunch break. Live chat and text are helpful for brief check-ins, homework support, or when typing feels more comfortable than speaking.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 26 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
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