About Susan
Susan Dawson is a licensed mental health counselor in Florida with 17 years of experience. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, anger, and self-esteem problems. She also supports clients facing relationship and intimacy issues, grief, trauma, and big life changes such as divorce or career shifts.
Her work is practical and straightforward. She listens first, then helps people set small, doable goals. Sessions often include learning new skills to manage strong emotions and changing unhelpful thoughts.
Background and approach
Mindfulness and breathing techniques are commonly used to reduce anxiety and improve focus. Susan uses a mix of approaches to match each person’s needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns.
Emotion-focused and Gottman-informed methods guide work on closeness and communication in relationships. Client-centered care keeps the person’s values and identity central to every step. She has experience with mood disorders, addictions, and trauma-related concerns, and she addresses additional issues like commitment, communication, guilt, and isolation.
Her practice includes helping people cope with HIV/AIDS, immigration stress, and recovery from infidelity. Susan aims to make therapy feel manageable. She explains techniques simply and practices them together with clients so skills can be used between sessions.
The approach is collaborative and paced to each person’s comfort and goals.
Therapy approaches that fit your life online
Client-centered therapy focuses on the person first. The therapist listens closely, reflects what she hears, and helps people find their own solutions. This approach is useful when you want a supportive space to explore values, identity, and personal goals.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, targets thoughts and behaviors that keep problems going. It teaches practical tools for managing anxiety, depression, and mood swings by changing patterns of thinking and building coping skills. That makes it a good fit for people who want step-by-step strategies.
Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps people understand and change emotional reactions in relationships. It is often used to improve communication, repair hurts, and build connection when intimacy or trust feels strained.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, try techniques, and adjust the plan based on what helps most. This is a collaborative process where the client’s preferences guide which methods get prioritized.
Online therapy offers flexibility in how sessions happen. Video calls let people work face-to-face without travel. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or when you prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging provide short, on-the-go check-ins and can fit into busy days. These options make it easier to maintain consistency and use therapy tools between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Anger management
Also works with
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English