About Susan
Susan Futterman uses attachment-focused and trauma-informed approaches to guide people through painful life events. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California.
Background and approach
Susan writes plainly and stays focused on what matters in day-to-day life. Susan helps people navigate grief, trauma, anxiety, and depression.
She also supports those facing relationship strain, career stress, and hard life transitions. Her work covers issues such as panic attacks, mood disorders, and effects of sexual assault and abuse.
She draws on attachment-based methods to look at how early relationships shape current patterns. Psychodynamic ideas help bring recurring thoughts and feelings into view.
When the body holds stress, somatic tools offer ways to notice and calm physical reactions. Susan has 11 years of clinical experience working with complex grief and complex trauma and related concerns.
She pays attention to issues like abandonment, dissociation, guilt, shame, and money-related stress. Her goals are practical and personal - to reduce distress and help people feel more stable in daily life.
People who choose Susan can expect straightforward conversation, focus on real-world coping skills, and a willingness to name painful patterns. She aims to help clients make small changes that add up to better functioning and more ease in relationships and work.
Online approaches that address trauma and attachment
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationship patterns shape current behavior and feelings. It helps people see repeated patterns, improve emotional connection, and build more reliable ways of relating. Trauma-Focused Therapy centers on processing traumatic events and reducing their hold on daily life through targeted interventions and pacing that fit the person. Somatic Therapy pays attention to the body's responses to stress and offers simple practices to reduce physical tension and overwhelm.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals, and what feels most useful. Together they’ll choose methods that match the issue at hand and adjust as progress is made, keeping the plan flexible and collaborative.
Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions let people meet face to face from different locations. Phone sessions can be easier when video isn't an option or bandwidth is low. Live chat and text messaging are useful for brief check-ins, between-session support, or when typing feels more comfortable. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and everyday life.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Career difficulties
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Family conflicts
- Guilt and shame
- LGBT
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English