About Sarah Susswein: Nurturing Growth through Counselling
My story.
The beginning was tumultuous. I immigrated to Canada when I was 9 years old. My upbringing was clouded in profound fear, loss, and disappointment. I was a homeless teen once, and that was before cell phones and the internet!
As an adult, I was mostly anxious and miserable - miserable with the high conflict relationships I had, miserable with what felt like a dead end job, single with two kids, no prospects, and a history of dropping out of school.
All I had was me. All I can do is put one foot in front of the other.
Thanks to my ADHD, the bits of daydreaming and jokes in my head distracted me enough from my misery to keep me going. One of those revolving distractions was the theme of learning.
My love of learning led me to a path of learning about neurodiversity, and the learning needs of those who are just not average.
Despite my profound skepticism for mental health professionals, I met my therapist by chance. She empowered me with the courage to make a career change.
While I completed my bachelor’s degree, I took training in the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach, and the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) Educational Therapy to remediate learning disabilities in children. My work with school-aged children and their families led me to seeing how lasting emotions can impact a person’s functioning throughout life.
Through working with children and working with my own therapist, I decided to become a counsellor and completed a master’s degree in counselling. My work with youth in a low barrier access centre as a counsellor touched me deeply. I worked with youth with a variety of concerns, including substance use, anxiety, suicide ideation, trauma, self-esteem, mental illness, and coming of age uncertainties such as employment goals and relationships.
I find much enjoyment in life now. I have learned to embrace my deep introversion and being a highly sensitive person. The lows in my past allow me to experience profound joy and gratitude, and for that, I am grateful. And I would like to pay it forward as a counsellor.
In my spare time, I continue to learn and take professional development courses in psychology and counselling. (To see my post-graduate list of professional development and training, click here.)
I like to lift heavy things, listen to podcasts, read, make my teens laugh, and try not to fall too far into random rabbit holes.
