Susan Ryder, LCPC

Susan Ryder is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) practicing in Maine with 17 years of experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and difficult life changes. Her work often includes concerns like addiction, grief, relationship and intimacy issues, and caregiver stress.

Susan centers sessions on the person in front of her. She respects each person's life story and looks for strengths to build on. Conversations are practical and grounded, aimed at finding small, useful changes that feel doable.

Her approach draws on cognitive behavioral therapy to help people spot unhelpful thought patterns and shift behavior. She also uses client-centered techniques to listen closely and motivational interviewing when someone is weighing a change. Narrative and solution-focused ideas help reframe problems and set clear goals.

Susan has supported people through parenting strain, blended family challenges, divorce and separation, first responder issues, and aging or caregiver stress. She also addresses process addictions such as gambling, exercise, or pornography concerns and mood changes tied to seasonal shifts.

Sessions are available through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Susan guides a collaborative process that matches methods to each person's goals, and she helps take practical steps toward better day-to-day coping.

Practical approaches adapted for online care

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, helps people notice patterns of thinking that make stress and low mood worse and then try small behavior changes to test new ideas. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and managing everyday stressors.

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening without judgment and building on a person's existing strengths. This approach helps people feel understood and make decisions that fit their values. Motivational interviewing is used when someone is unsure about change; it involves exploring reasons for and against a change to find internal motivation.

Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. Susan will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals, needs, and preferences, and she adjusts the plan as progress is made.

Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for quick check-ins, and text messaging supports brief updates and reflections between longer sessions. These options help fit therapy into busy schedules and different daily routines.