Susan Van Wazer , LPC

Susan Van Wazer is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with three decades of experience supporting individuals, couples, and families through significant life challenges. She combines a family systems perspective with practical therapeutic tools to explore how relational patterns and early experiences shape present-day struggles. Her approach emphasizes understanding the underlying dynamics that keep people stuck while helping them take actionable steps toward the changes they want to make.

Susan often uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help clients identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and to develop new strategies for coping and problem solving. She also works extensively with people who have survived traumatic childhood experiences and who continue to feel their effects in daily life. Over the course of her career she has served in a variety of roles, including program development, clinical supervision, and administrative management of grants and events, giving her a broad view of service delivery and team leadership.

Having lived in both large metropolitan and small town communities, Susan brings a flexible, down-to-earth perspective to therapy. She has experience with LGBQ clients, youth and young adults, families, couples, and individuals facing career transitions, recovery from trauma, depression, anxiety, addiction issues, grief, parenting challenges, and questions about life purpose and identity. As a seasoned practitioner, she aims to help people move from patterns of limitation toward greater resilience and clarity.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Treatment Options

Susan Van Wazer draws on client-centered therapy to place the client's experience at the heart of the work. This approach focuses on empathy, listening, and supporting each person to find their own solutions, which is helpful for people seeking validation and a collaborative space to explore change. She also employs cognitive behavioral therapy, a practical method that helps identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and replace them with more adaptive patterns - it is often used for anxiety, depression, and coping with stressful life changes. In addition, she brings existential therapy perspectives that invite clients to explore meaning, values, and life purpose when facing major transitions or questions about identity.

Finding the right fit is part of the therapeutic process, and Susan works collaboratively with clients to determine which combination of approaches best matches their needs, goals, and preferences. She tailors the work to the individual rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model.

Online therapy with Susan can take place via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, offering flexibility for busy schedules, distance barriers, or varying comfort levels with communication. These options make it easier to maintain consistency in care and to access therapy from locations that fit each client's life.