SUSAN BOTTS MA, LMFT

About Susan

Susan has worked in a variety of settings including at a large personal care home, as an in-home family therapist, and working in private practice in the Chicago suburbs. She also chose to stay home while her kids were young, so she understands some of the nuances of being both a working parent and a stay-at-home one.



Susan has lived in the Midwest and on the East coast, but returned to Illinois in 2010. She and her artist-husband have three pretty great kids, and enjoy gardening, playing games, and doing a lot of collaborative art projects together. She would answer the “would you rather go to a beach or hike in the mountains?” question with an affirmative: “Yes, both please.” Laughter is one of her favorite things.

Susan's approach to therapy

Susan’s approach to therapy is genuine and compassionate, strengths-focused, and promotes personal curiosity. She works to help people discover their underlying needs and come up with positive, new steps to experience themselves and their relationships differently. Experiential, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Narrative Therapy are some of what inform Susan’s approach.

By considering what holds us in our patterns and having a safe space to begin healing from past injuries, we can begin to reshape our internal experience and our connection to others. Susan works with people experiencing anxiety, depression, conflict in relationships, family transitions, parenting challenges, and people simply trying to find and accept a more authentic sense of themselves.

Couples, families with young adults, as well as those with little kids, teenagers, and individual adults all may find Susan to be a good fit for them. She is down-to-earth, caring, and can be playful at the same time. Adapting to who is in the room is an art form and working with a variety of clients is exciting for her.

Finding the right therapist is important. Susan welcomes talking about this. We can figure out in the therapy room what is working and what isn’t. We can practice advocating for ourselves and trusting one another.