About SusAnne
SusAnne Sheffield is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California with ten years of clinical experience. She guides people through stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and disordered eating with a calm, steady approach.
Background and approach
SusAnne focuses on helping clients feel stronger and more grounded as they work toward better daily functioning and emotional balance. She begins by listening to each person’s story and priorities.
Sessions are simple and direct. She helps people name painful feelings, notice how those feelings affect behavior, and test small changes that can improve how they feel day to day.
SusAnne pays attention to experiences of abandonment, attachment struggles, shame and guilt, and body image. She also supports people facing caregiver stress, communication problems, control issues, and life-purpose questions.
Pregnancy and childbirth, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress, and loneliness are other areas she often addresses. Her work includes attention to spirituality and somatic experiencing alongside other evidence-based techniques.
SusAnne aims to create a warm, nonjudgmental space where clients can try new ways of coping and practice self-compassion. Progress is viewed as step-by-step work rather than sudden fixes.
Sessions tend to be practical and tailored to each person. She helps clients build tools they can use between appointments and checks in on how those tools are working.
The focus is on realistic steps to reduce distress and support lasting change.
How evidence-based techniques translate to online care
Somatic experiencing focuses on bodily sensations and gentle movement to help reduce the hold of trauma symptoms. It helps people notice where tension lives in the body and practice simple, grounded exercises to reduce overwhelm and increase calm.Another common approach is brief skills work that targets anxiety and mood symptoms. This involves teaching practical tools for managing panic attacks, regulating mood, and breaking unhelpful patterns in daily life so people can feel steadier between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to pick or adapt techniques based on their goals, needs, and comfort level. Sessions are paced to match what feels doable and helpful for the individual.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls let people keep visual connection for deeper conversation, phone sessions work well when video bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text-based messaging can support shorter check-ins or ongoing coaching between appointments. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and keep momentum when life is hectic.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English