Suzi Woodard

I love working with people who are motivated to learn, grow and heal – individually and/or in important relationships. I see adults of all ages and older adolescents who want to be there. I am open to people of all races, ethnicities, cultures, religions/spiritual beliefs or none, sexual orientations, genders, backgrounds.

My earliest involvement in this field was as a trained crisis counselor, peer counselor. community educator, and group facilitator for several years, in holistic health and wellness. My first graduate academic education followed, a masters degree (MA) in health psychology (1985), which blended info about physiology and physical health (nutrition, movement/exercise, lifestyle, etc.) with psychology and therapy.

I obtained an MA in marriage and family therapy (1998), to expand and deepen my knowledge and skills in relationship and family/couple system work. It had not been part of the curriculum in the 1980s and had become a growing part of my client work.

In addition , I have sought professional training, most of it full-day or multi-day courses to develop expertise in specific areas. There are too many topics to list, but the main categories are understanding the brain and nervous system, stress/ anxiety and resilience, trauma /PTSD/ dissociation, mind-body/ somatic therapies, evidence-based mindfulness practices, diversity/ anti-discrimination, couple /relational therapy including sexuality, ADHD, and expressive arts therapies.

I bring my skills, knowledge and experience to my work, and I expect clients to bring their willingness and active involvement in moving toward their goals. I cannot “fix” anyone. I can share concepts, teach skills, facilitate clearer understanding, give relevant feedback, support and encourage, and help explore options. I do not have a

I work with a blend of many styles of therapies which I’ve studied and practiced over the years. I work holistically, with attention to patterns – thoughts, emotions, physical reactions and health, relationship reactions, communication and conflict, nutrition, physical activity or movement – and what we know is likely to be effective. At the same time, each person is an individual, and each path is personal.

I bring my skills, knowledge and experience to my work, along with attentiveness to my clients. I can share concepts, teach skills, facilitate clearer understanding, give relevant feedback, support and encourage, coach, and help explore options. However, I cannot “fix” anyone, and clients must contribute their active involvement, or at least willingness, to participate.

We will work together to find the most helpful ways for you to work during and between appointments, ideally the ways that best fit your goals, history, personality and preferences,.

I think of a first therapy session as having 3 main goals: (1.) to get acquainted enough to get a sense about comfort and trust with each other, enough to make a decision about meeting again, (2.) to discuss the client’s goal or goals for therapy, to define where we’re heading in our work together – sometimes simple and sometimes a more complicated process, and (3.) if time, to teach or share at least one small practice that may begin to help the client move toward their goal(s), or feel more able to start that movement in the next session.

At the end of the intake session, we will either schedule a second appointment with a plan to pursue further what we began, or the client(s) may want to take more time to consider a next session, and we’ll determine how to communicate about that decision. Or the client(s) will have decided not to come back, in which case we might or might not discuss alternative next steps.

By the way, clients are always free to stop seeing me at any time. I do prefer that clients let me know something about what changed, rather than just disappearing, but I will always support a client’s right to make that choice.