Your story matters.
Welcome to Overbrook Counseling
Find increased freedom to choose your future and to write the new chapters of your story.
At Overbrook Counseling, I would love to learn about your story, past and present, hear your dreams for your future, and offer you a safe place to talk about life. No matter what your story includes, counseling is a wonderful way to address all that has impacted you. And if you happen to have questions regarding faith and spirituality, it would be an honor to join your search for answers. I offer a non-judgmental space to listen to the parts of your story that YOU want to address. You are the expert on you!
You have a captivating story. It's true! Maybe it’s not the story you would have written for yourself, or maybe you’ve stopped hoping for a fairy-tale ending, but your story is still fascinating. It has both created and formed you and is still influencing all you do and say today. The good news is, there are still more chapters to be written!
One of the biggest influences on our stories is our relationships- In fact, many prominent therapists agree that the quality of our lives is a direct result of the quality of our relationships. Our relationships shape our lives. Sometimes it becomes difficult to enjoy our relationships or the fullness of our lives. Sometimes the people and places that are supposed to be the safest (family, home, church) have brought the most pain.
I have experience counseling in different clinical settings such as private practice and intensive outpatient sites for behavioral health. My passions include working with older adolescents (16 and up), college students, young professionals, and couples. I have recently had the privilege to walk alongside those in post-retirement years and have been encouraged by their desire to more fully understand all that has shaped their lives. I also have experience learning how to live in a different culture while being an expat for nearly 5 years, as well as experience with the emotional difficulty that sometimes comes when re-entering a home culture. I see clients who desire to address issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, life transitions, anger management, trauma, relationship challenges, or faith-based issues. I desire to equip and empower clients to find their own unique strengths to handle life’s adversities.
Meet Susan
My favorite place to be is curled up in a chair with a cup of coffee listening to the intricate details of what makes people who they are. People are fascinating! After 35 or more years of mentoring teenagers and young adults, I found that many people’s struggles were becoming increasingly complex, and the amazing people in front of me needed more care than a mentor could provide. I encouraged several mentees to seek professional counseling, and when I saw their transformation, I decided it was time to invest in the education and skills that would allow me to care well for others who crossed my path. It has been the best decision and has allowed me to learn so much more about the sources of many people’s struggles and the ways that our brains can be retrained. We can heal. We can move forward. And we can find joy in our lives!
Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling From Grace College and Seminary
National Certified Counselor™ (NCC®)
Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LPCA) for the State of South Carolina
Certifications
EMDRIA-Trained EMDR Therapist
SYMBIS
Prepare & Enrich
Adlerian Therapy, CBT, and Narrative Therapy
The Allender Center's Family of Origin: Emerging from Past Patterns to Live into Your Present
the Allender Center’s Story Sage Series
Skills & Training
I have always felt that there was one significant and influential place in my history that perfectly captured the feelings of comfort, peace, and security. Interestingly, this place also represented to me the ideals of adventure, excitement, and epic stories. Counseling should include all of these things!
Why the name Overbrook?
Overbrook Counseling was named for my great-grandparents’ house on Overbrook Road in Greenville, SC. And even though I had some childhood struggles, as well as some turbulent waters to cross during adolescence, Overbrook was my refuge and place of peace. My grandmother was raised in that house, my mother was born in that house, and my sister and I felt valued, loved, and safe in that house. Many people have had grandparents who cared for them, but Overbrook also felt like my own personal Narnia. Instead of walking through a wardrobe and ending up in a forest of trees (like the characters in the book), I would walk through the trees in the backyard and find myself perched on top of an old, ivy-covered, stone column, part of a trolley trestle that had been abandoned for decades. I would spend hours playing and daydreaming there, hidden from view from anyone in the house or anyone on the street below. It was both my safe place and the place where my hopes and dreams for life’s adventures began to take shape. I want to offer the same feeling to clients, a type of valuable and safe place where clients can begin to hope and dream for the future.
What Matters To Me
Prior to counseling, my experience includes more than 35 years of ministry and mentoring through various settings including church, Young Life, and women’s ministries. My faith and my relationship with God have laid the groundwork for me to love and invest in others. One verse that sums up my desires for Overbrook Counseling is Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope.”
Core Values
Your distinct values have shaped who you are and will also help lead you toward who you want to become. All are welcome at Overbrook! And though my personal background includes spiritual faith, I recognize that for some, the church (or the people within it) has been a source of pain. Some of my amazing clients have felt this way. Your beliefs are personal and unique to you and I want you to feel the freedom to be exactly who you are!
All Are Welcome
I believe everyone is equipped to experience hope and healing, joy and peace. In the same way that our bodies naturally want to heal when we get a cut or scrape, our brains were designed for self-healing as well! Just as we sometimes need to seek medical help to enhance our bodies’ natural abilities to heal, we can also seek mental health professionals to enhance our brains’ natural capacity toward healing.
