Susan Haarman, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

If you're reading this, you've probably been carrying something heavy for a while. Maybe your brain won't turn off at night, maybe everything feels like more effort than it used to, or maybe you're tired of showing up for everyone else and wondering when it's your turn. Deciding to look for a therapist is genuinely one of the hardest parts of this whole thing, and you've already done it. That takes real strength and humility, even if it doesn't feel like much right now. My job is to help you channel that strength toward what actually matters to you. I work with adults and couples navigating anxiety, depression, grief, identity, big life transitions, and the everyday weight of moving through systems that weren't built with all of us in mind. As a queer therapist committed to social justice, I want my office to be a place where you feel fully affirmed and heard, especially if that hasn't been your experience elsewhere. My approach is client-centered, which means we start with you and what you care about rather than a script. I draw heavily on acceptance and commitment therapy to help you relate differently to painful thoughts, and to make clear, active choices about your own life. We'll work hard, but we'll also use humor and compassion along the way. You don't have to figure it all out alone, and you don't have to do it without laughing sometimes, either.

I see clients through Psychotherapy Associates of Chicago, a group practice of independent therapists and psychiatric providers who share a pretty simple belief. We’re here to help people, and we’d rather do that honestly than hide behind clinical jargon or pretend we have all the answers. I bring that same honesty into my own work, along with a sense of humor, because I think you can take the work seriously without taking yourself too seriously. My practice is fully virtual, with evening and weekend availability, since I know the standard nine to five doesn’t fit a lot of people’s real lives. I see individuals and couples in Chicago, Illinois, and I offer a free 15-minute consultation so you can get a feel for me before committing to anything. Fit matters more than almost anything else in this process. Much of my work draws on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which is really about helping you make clear, meaningful choices about your own life rather than feeling pushed around by anxiety, old patterns, or other people’s expectations. My hope is that you leave therapy feeling more grounded, more like yourself, and more able to move toward what actually matters to you.