Susan Brown, CMHC-I

As a mother of 6, I have experienced the struggles associated with raising teenagers and adolescents. Maintaining motivation, establishing independence, and positive communication can be common frustrations. My journey to become a counselor began when I discovered my oldest daughter was severely depressed and struggling with self-harm and suicide ideation. I felt helpless and judged; our family was in crisis mode.

I am currently completing my dual master’s degree to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and School Counselor. I specialize in helping teenagers and adolescents struggling with anxiety and/or depression. I want to help families and individuals learn to cope, by teaching them tools to overcome difficulties and become stronger. I have created and taught a Family Crisis Suicide Prevention class in my community. I also created a Thriving Amid Crisis (TAC) tool to help empower families and individuals to problem solve and find local resources. In addition, I work with middle school students to improve motivation, attendance and grades.

My passion is helping adolescents and emerging adults, and their immediate family. My focus is on creating a safe environment for clients to be open and real, while feeling accepted so they can heal in a healthy way and become stronger to live life to its fullest. I have successfully helped adolescents problem solve to find healthy and realistic solutions to their situations. I use a combination of therapy modalities to best help individuals, couples, and families discover how their past influences them to help create a positive future.

My goal as a counselor is to help clients find healthy coping strategies to bring relief, create school prevention programs for anxiety and depression, and help parents with their children throughout all stages of life to improve relationships and strengthen their family. Potentially, I want to use recreational therapy to empower and motivate all ages and groups through summer outdoor programs!

In my spare time I can be found going on a long walk, either by myself or with someone. I love hiking, camping, rafting, repelling, and anything outdoors (unless it involves freefalling). Just before the school year begins, I like to go on a longer hike to help inspire and motivate me for the upcoming school year. I’ll try just about anything once, and then I like to move on to something new. I love organizing, cleaning, and generally make a mess in the process. I believe everyone has something unique that they can offer the rest of us, to help us become better, and the process to find that is equally unique.