Susan Garner, LMFT

Susan Garner is a California LMFT with 20 years of clinical practice. She works with stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties, depression, grief, anger, self-esteem, and family of origin issues. Susan also addresses trauma and abuse, intimacy concerns, career strain, ADHD, bipolar concerns, and coping with life changes.

Susan describes therapy as a practical process. She helps people name what feels stuck and then tries different ways to change those patterns. Sessions often include talking through relationship patterns, learning clearer communication, and practicing skills to manage strong feelings. She uses both short-term techniques and deeper reflective work depending on what someone needs.

Her approach blends attachment-based ideas, client-centered listening, cognitive behavioral tools, emotionally-focused methods, and mindfulness practices. That mix is used to help people notice repeated family roles, identify unhelpful tendencies, and try new responses. She also draws on psychodynamic thinking to look at how early family dynamics still influence current choices.

Susan supports people dealing with abandonment, attachment issues, blended family challenges, codependency, infidelity, jealousy, and divorce or separation. She also works with body image concerns, guilt and shame, emptiness, and midlife questions. Sessions aim to increase clarity, confidence, and more effective relationship behavior.

She asks clients to set clear objectives and reviews progress along the way. The focus is on practical changes in daily life as well as understanding how family patterns shaped current struggles. People who want straightforward conversation about family origins and present relationships will find a direct, experienced clinician here.

How her approaches translate to online work