About Susan
Susan Schwerd, MD, LCPC, helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and grief. She also supports those coping with chronic pain, medical illness, career strain, and major life changes. Her approach blends understanding emotions with practical steps people can try between sessions.
Susan brings 24 years of experience to her work. Before independent practice she spent years in outpatient mental health settings and ten years in human resources. That background informs her coaching style for personal growth and workplace concerns.
Background and approach
Her work starts with listening and identifying patterns that keep someone stuck. She draws on psychodynamic ideas to look at underlying causes of distress. Then she adds solution-focused techniques to set clear goals and small, doable steps toward change.
Susan also uses hypnotherapy where appropriate as an adjunct to talk therapy. In online sessions she teaches simple self-hypnosis and breathing tools for managing anxiety and chronic pain. These techniques are presented as skills people can use on their own between appointments.
Sessions are offered through video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging depending on format chosen. She practices in Maryland and conducts therapy in English. People interested in starting complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule according to availability.
How her approaches work online
Psychodynamic Therapy looks at patterns in feelings and behavior to find what keeps someone stuck. It helps when anxiety, depression, or recurring relationship and work problems trace back to older experiences.Solution-Focused Therapy concentrates on clear, short-term goals and small steps that move a person toward change. It is useful for career challenges, stress management, and building practical coping routines.
Hypnotherapy in her practice is used as an adjunct to teaching self-hypnosis and breathing exercises. Clients learn techniques to reduce anxiety, manage chronic pain, and improve sleep as skills to use between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the process and happens together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful. Plans are adjusted over time based on progress and feedback.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video is useful for deeper conversational work while phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited. Chat and messaging can support shorter check-ins, quick coaching, or follow-up between longer sessions. These options make therapy more flexible for people balancing work, caregiving, or health appointments.
Questions people ask
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What this counselor works with
Also listed
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Sleeping disorders
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 24 years
- Licensed
- Maryland
- Languages
- English