Susan Garner, LMFT

Susan Garner is an LMFT - Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20 years of clinical experience working with individuals, couples, and families. She brings together professional training, personal life experience, and a long-standing commitment to clients' growth to help people clarify their goals and make meaningful changes in their lives. Her practice serves a wide age range, including clients from about 17 through 70 and older, and she has worked with couples - including same-sex couples - and people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Susan approaches problems as often rooted in core emotional injuries, attachment wounds, or complicated family-of-origin dynamics rather than neat diagnostic labels. She draws from mindfulness practices, insight-oriented methods, cognitive behavioral techniques, somatic body-mind approaches, and psychodynamic ideas to tailor treatment to each person. Common areas of focus include stress and anxiety, relationship and intimacy issues, trauma and abuse, depression, family and blended-family challenges, grief, anger, self-esteem concerns, career questions, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and coping with major life changes.

Therapy with Susan emphasizes defining objectives collaboratively, building a strong therapeutic alliance, and developing practical skills for healthier relationships and greater confidence. She offers compassionate, respectful care aimed at helping clients feel less alone, gain clarity, and move toward lives designed with intention.

Evidence-Informed Approaches and Online Therapy

Susan integrates several proven approaches to address emotional and relational difficulties. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early bonds shape current relationships - it helps people understand patterns of closeness, abandonment, and trust so they can build more secure connections. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches practical tools to identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors - it is useful for managing anxiety, depression, and stress by developing new coping strategies. Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) centers on identifying and reshaping emotional responses within relationships - it is often used to repair relationship rifts and improve communication between partners.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and Susan works collaboratively with each person to determine what fits best based on their needs, goals, and preferences. She tailors techniques from these models rather than relying on a single method, inviting clients to shape the focus of sessions together.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility - sessions can be scheduled as video calls or phone conversations, and shorter interactions are possible via live chat or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to maintain consistency with appointments, accommodate busy schedules, and access licensed professionals from different locations, while supporting continuity of care and responsiveness to changing life demands.