About Susan Burns, MA, LMHC, DAPA, FNBCCH

"I have been fortunate with the opportunity to work in the human service field for 38 years and feel thankful to my students and clients for what they have taught me. I believe that healing and support is circular. We all share in the healing and we learn from the experiences of those that have gone before us."

Susan Burns, MA, LMHC, FNBCCH, DAPA is a Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Somatic Therapist with a private practice in individual and family counseling in Bellevue, WA. She is a Diplomate of The American Psychotherapy Association and a Fellow of the National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapy, is the Vice President of CG Jung Society Seattle, and offers professional continuing education workshops through the Association For Humanistic Psychology. Since 1989, Family Connection, an integrated approach using counseling, consulting and group services has helped adults and children in the Seattle and Eastside community to create healthy and whole relationships, improve individual and family behavioral health, and foster self development.

Here is what Susan says about her services:

I have been in general private practice in the Seattle area as a psychotherapist since 1989, working with a variety of needs, very specialized with families and children. A good deal of my counseling practice has been devoted to learning and social issues in both adults and children. I am very client centered, focused on personal integration, believing all healing starts with a connection to ourselves.

For 20 years, I have facilitated social healing groups with children and adults and large and small community groups focused on personal growth. It has also been important for me to integrate my extensive expertise as a public educator, begun in 1971 into my clinical practice. I have been certified and am experienced as 1) public school teacher (all ages)  2) special educator, 3) learning specialist, 4) Montessori teacher, and 5) community health educator.

I also believe in the creative process in holistic healing. One of the driving currents in my life has been a certainty that we are interconnected in ways we do not understand.  So I am oriented to client-centered counseling, helping people make meaning out of personal and relationship conflict. I understand how change happens both personally, in families, and in groups. My psychotherapy work can happen in the following contexts: one-on-one, couples, families, and group.

I have cultivated a profound respect for holistic healing, with a history of traditional family systems, cognitive therapy, transpersonal and process-oriented psychology, as well as non-traditional therapies. I integrate many years of theoretical and practical study of the mind body connection, applying the tools of clinical hypnotherapy, somatic psychology, energetic release, as well as art, movement, and expressive therapies in rhythm with the client. I have a rich tool kit to draw from yet place importance on meeting people where they are coming from.

My approach to client centered, holistic psychotherapy  with adults and children in transition, begins with clarifying client goals. It is constantly guided by and informed by the client(s), for the client(s), bringing client(s) to experientially understand their own essential therapeutic process for effective change.

I have a long history on The Stewardship Council of The Institute of Noetic Sciences, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder), LDA (Learning Disabilities Association of WA). I am a Diplomate of The American Psychotherapy Association (APA) and a Fellow of The National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapy (NBCCH), member of The American Counseling Association (ACA), I sponsor workshops for professionals under the auspices of The Association for Humanistic Pyschology (AHP) and am VP of the CG Jung Society Seattle. You can also find me on Counseling Seattle and Seattle Counselors Association .

See my other web page at www.feelingwhole.com and My professional continuing education services at www.transformativegroups.com