- Client-Centered Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Solution-Focused tools
About Paula
Paula Sussman is a Colorado clinical social worker, LCSW, with 30 years of experience. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, self-esteem concerns, and major life changes. Paula centers on clients' experiences and strengths when they want practical help with difficult feelings like guilt and shame.
She takes a straightforward, person-focused approach. Sessions focus on what is happening now and what the person wants to change. Paula listens for the values and goals a person already has, then helps identify small, doable steps forward. She uses a light touch of humor when appropriate to ease heavy conversations.
Clients commonly bring issues such as caregiving strain, chronic illness or pain, aging concerns, isolation, and questions about life purpose. Paula also works with forgiveness, control issues, emptiness, and struggles common in midlife or young adulthood. She supports women facing gender-related stresses and adults handling family problems.
Her methods draw on Client-Centered Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Solution-Focused Therapy. That means sessions often look like careful listening, clarifying what matters most, and trying practical strategies that can be tested between meetings. Paula views people as capable of change and focuses on building on existing strengths.
She sees clients throughout Colorado and conducts sessions in English. People interested in learning more are invited to complete the site's matching questionnaire to schedule an initial appointment and discuss fit.
How Paula's approaches translate to online work
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely to the person's story and reflecting back what matters most. Online sessions using this approach keep the conversation grounded in the client's values and priorities and help people clarify what they want to change.Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented style that helps when someone feels torn about making a change. In remote sessions it looks like asking open questions, noticing ambivalence, and helping a person find their own reasons to move forward.
Solution-Focused Therapy emphasizes small, practical steps and testing what works between meetings. Online work can concentrate on concrete actions, short experiments, and brief progress checks to see what changes are useful.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. Paula will help figure out which methods fit a person's goals and preferences through discussion and early sessions. The process is collaborative and adjusts over time based on what helps.
The therapist's biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to schedule appointments around daily life, shorten check-ins, avoid travel, or choose a quieter time of day. Those practical benefits often help people fit therapy into busy routines without assuming any particular format.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
30+ years
Listed in
Colorado
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, low self-esteem, and coping with life changes. The profile also lists caregiver issues, chronic illness, aging concerns, and guilt and shame.
How would she approach feelings of guilt or shame?
Paula listens to the person's experience, clarifies values and goals, and uses client-centered and solution-focused techniques to identify practical next steps. Motivational Interviewing may be used to explore ambivalence about change.
How much experience does she have?
She has 30 years of clinical experience working with adults on a range of life and relationship issues.
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Paula is an LCSW licensed in Colorado and meets with clients throughout the state.
Does she work in other languages or with international clients?
Sessions are offered in English. She is not accepting international clients.
What session formats does she offer?
The original biography does not specify session formats; please confirm current session options before booking.
How does payment and cost work?
Cost varies with location and sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
How do I get started with her?
Select the See online therapy options button, complete the short matching questionnaire, and schedule a first session to discuss fit and goals.
Online talk therapy is not emergency care. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, use the crisis numbers.