Susan Shafer
Calm, practical support for family life
- Credentials
- LCMHC, LPC
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed in
- North Carolina, New Jersey
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Susan
Susan Shafer is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with about 15 years of clinical experience. She practices from New Jersey and focuses on practical, down-to-earth help for families and parents. Her work tends to be hands-on and aimed at easing stress, anxiety, and the ups and downs of parenting and family life.
Susan uses straightforward talk therapy combined with skills practice. She draws on Client-Centered Therapy to create a respectful space where people can say what they need.
Background and approach
She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, and Mindfulness practices to reduce stress in day-to-day life. Her background includes work across ages and settings, and she has supported people with depression, bipolar mood concerns, ADHD, grief, trauma, and addiction-related struggles. She also addresses issues such as attachment, communication problems, divorce and separation, and parenting challenges.
Susan blends practical tools with attention to how feelings and family patterns interact. Sessions often include clear, teachable strategies for managing anxiety, improving sleep, coping with loss, and handling intense emotions like anger. She may introduce short mindfulness exercises and simple behavior experiments to try between meetings.
The overall aim is to build skills that families can use right away. Susan welcomes questions about her style and what a typical session looks like. Her approach emphasizes collaboration - working together to set goals and test small changes.
Parents wanting direct, usable strategies for family life will find her approach focused and approachable.
Practical approaches for online family and parenting support
Susan often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness Therapy in online sessions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a hands-on method that helps identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, which can ease anxiety, mood problems, and parenting stress. Mindfulness Therapy involves short attention and breathing exercises that help reduce reactivity and improve focus during tense family moments.Choosing the right approach is a team effort. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, everyday struggles, and personal preferences. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy families. Sessions can take place by video or phone when meeting in person is difficult. Live chat or text-based messaging also lets parents check in between appointments or use brief coaching when needed. These options make it easier to fit consistent support into family schedules while still practicing the same tools that would be used in person.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Mindfulness Therapy
Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- North Carolina, New Jersey
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Susan
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point