About Susan
Susan Sparks is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with ten years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people who are stressed, anxious, grieving, depressed, or coping with life changes. She also supports people facing trauma, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting challenges, sleep and eating problems, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and career strain.
Susan trained at the University of Illinois and earned her Master of Social Work in 2011. She became an IL LCSW in 2013 and has relied on that training in a range of settings.
How Susan works
Her background includes decades of community work and volunteer roles that shaped her commitment to mental health. In sessions she keeps language plain and practical. She starts by listening to what matters most and then offers concrete tools to try between meetings.
Strategies may address behavior, mood, stress, or parenting moments depending on each person's goals. Susan draws on evidence-based techniques and age-appropriate methods so care fits the person and their situation. She believes everyone has strengths to build on and that steady guidance can help people move past obstacles and toward more satisfying days.
Her approach blends practical exercises, skill building, and reflective conversation. Parents and adults seeking clearer routines, better sleep, or ways to manage anxiety or anger will find focused problem-solving alongside supportive guidance.
What Susan works with
The areas below are the ones Susan selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 10 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Illinois |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Many of Susan's methods focus on clear, research-backed techniques that teach skills people can use right away. Cognitive behavioral approaches look at how thoughts and behaviors interact and offer exercises to reduce anxiety, lift mood, and change unhelpful patterns. Behavioral and play-based methods target real-world actions and routines, helping with behavior challenges, sleep, eating issues, and parenting moments.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist listens to a person's concerns, goals, and day-to-day situation, then suggests options to try. Together they check what helps and adjust the plan as needs change so care stays practical and relevant.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, while phone sessions can work better when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging make it easy to fit brief conversations into a busy day or to follow up between sessions. These options increase flexibility and make it simpler to keep therapy consistent despite a hectic schedule.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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