Suzanne Boak
Restoring connection and coping skills
LMSW Michigan
- Experience
- 32 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Relationship, Family, Grief
- Approaches
- Gottman Method, Client-Centered Therapy
- Languages
- English
About Suzanne
Suzanne Boak is a licensed clinical social worker with 32 years of experience helping people through relationship pain, family strain, grief, and parenting stress. She supports those coping with anxiety, trauma and abuse, anger, and major life changes.
Background and approach
Suzanne focuses on practical steps that reduce daily strain and improve communication. She favors a warm, down-to-earth style.
Sessions are straightforward and collaborative. Suzanne listens closely, reflects what she hears, and helps people try new ways of responding.
She aims to make therapy useful on the next day and the next week. Her background includes long experience working with caregivers and people managing chronic illness and disability.
That history informs how she helps when health problems change family roles or create ongoing stress. She also brings experience addressing first responder issues and compassion fatigue.
Suzanne uses a mix of approaches to meet different needs. That includes the Gottman Method for relationship patterns, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma-related symptoms, and client-centered strategies to help people feel heard and respected.
She also draws on solution-focused and motivational techniques to set practical goals. Sessions are offered from Michigan and conducted in English.
Suzanne works with people who want clear, concrete steps to handle conflict, rebuild trust, manage grief, or move past old hurts. She helps people identify small changes that add up to real relief.
How Suzanne blends approaches for online care
Gottman Method focuses on patterns between people and on rebuilding trust and connection through small, teachable skills. It looks at how couples interact and builds tools for better communication and shared understanding.Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, helps when past events continue to cause strong emotional reactions. It uses structured processing to reduce the intensity of distressing memories and the reactions they trigger.
Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's own experience. The therapist listens without judgment and supports people in finding their own solutions and strengths.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Suzanne will talk with each person about their goals and preferences and then try methods that fit. She encourages a collaborative process where techniques are adjusted over time based on what helps most.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls make it possible to have a face-to-face conversation when meeting in person is hard. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can work well for a shorter check-in. Live chat and text-based messaging allow ongoing support between sessions and can fit into busy days. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while balancing work, caregiving, and other demands.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of difficulties does she help with?
What is her approach to therapy like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Can international clients work with her?
What formats are available for sessions?
How do I begin therapy with her?
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
32+ years
Licensed in
Michigan
Languages
English