About Susan
Susan Ridenour is a licensed clinical social worker practicing in Kansas. She holds LCSW and LSCSW credentials and brings 35 years of healthcare and clinical experience to sessions. She works mainly with adults and focuses on relationship concerns, grief, career questions, and adapting to life changes.
Her background includes work across the lifespan in community and home-based settings. Susan has led teams in large healthcare organizations and provided individualized leadership coaching.
Background and approach
That experience is useful for people navigating workplace stress or using employee assistance program benefits. In sessions she uses practical tools and straightforward conversation. She draws on approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Clients may receive worksheets, journaling prompts, or short exercises to try between meetings. Susan offers support for a wide range of concerns beyond the main specialties. These include caregiver stress, aging and geriatric issues, attachment and family of origin problems, body image, cancer-related challenges, and coping after divorce or separation.
She also helps with communication problems, codependency, control issues, dissociation, and forgiveness work. Her style is collaborative and respectful. She invites people to use messaging and journaling tools as part of the work.
Sessions are framed as a space to talk through goals, practice new skills, and try small steps toward change.
Therapeutic approaches that translate well online
Susan uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people clarify what matters most to them and take small, values-based steps. ACT can help with grief, life transitions, and stuck feelings by focusing on actions rather than getting caught up in painful thoughts.She also draws on Client-Centered Therapy, which emphasizes listening, empathy, and supporting a person’s own process. This approach is helpful for building trust and exploring personal goals at a comfortable pace.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is another common tool she uses to identify unhelpful thinking and try practical experiments. CBT is useful for managing anxiety, improving communication, and handling workplace stress.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. Susan will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. She tailors methods and adjusts the plan as someone tries different strategies, so the process stays collaborative.
Online sessions offer flexibility and regular contact. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can fit a break at work, and messaging or live chat supports quick check-ins and short homework guidance. These options make it easier to keep momentum and practice new skills between meetings.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does the therapist have?
Where is she licensed to practice?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
What session formats are available?
How does payment and cost work?
How do I begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Grief
- Career difficulties
Also works with
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- Kansas, Missouri
- Languages
- English