About Susan Haverty, MFT
Susan is dedicated to your process of transformation. She will lead you through tried and true methods to create change in your life. Therapists vary in their training and specialties, and it is important to choose a provider that is going to meet your needs, and who has skills and expertise in your particular diagnosis or issue.
Susan has focused exclusively on Anxiety Disorders and Depressive Disorders for over 10 years. She primarily employs Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Exposure Ritual Response Prevention Therapy. Although any therapist can help someone who is feeling a bit blue, only people with specialized training can effectively treat OCD and anxiety disorders properly.
Similarly, although any medical doctor can take your blood pressure, only a few can do heart surgery. Treatment of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders require evidence-based therapy, not simply ‘talk therapy’. This is what Susan is specially trained in and has doing for many years.
Since 2007 she has had a successful practice serving the Greater Sacramento and surrounding areas. For over 10 years Susan has helped improve the lives of hundreds of clients suffering with anxiety and depressive disorders. Susan works directly with her clients one on one. She does not pass clients off to unexperienced interns and trainees. She works with the client one on one for the entire length of the treatment. Experience makes a difference and you will benefit from her many years of experience of seeing people just like you!
Many people have told her how she has helped them change their lives for the better. Recently, an 18 year old girl she saw as a pre-teen, sent Susan a graduation announcement and wrote on there, “I couldn’t have done it without you”. These and many other heartwarming stories of hope, healing and renewal are what keep inspiring Susan to continue her work in this area. “It is very gratifying to see people get better and improve the quality of their lives”, Susan said.
Susan also does couples therapy, family therapy and has specialized training in family systems, positive psychology, codependency, and narcissistic abuse.
Susan graduated from California State University, Sacramento, with a Master of the Arts Degree and she has an undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego. One thing that distinguishes her from other Anxiety/OCD/ERP trained Therapists is her 5 years of working with notable expert in the field, Paul Munford, Ph.D, in his intensive treatment programs for OCD and Anxiety Disorders in Sacramento and San Rafael. This kind of professional training by one of the leading experts in the field gives her specialized expertise in the treatment of these disorders. Susan is privileged and grateful to have learned from the best in the field. Unfortunately, Dr. Munford recently passed away. He was truly a great mentor and friend to Susan. He will be sorely missed by the OCD community he spent his life helping.
A Tribute to Dr. Munford, Ph.D: A Life to Be Remembered
Dr. Paul Munford, Ph.D was a clinical psychologist and internationally recognized expert in the treatment of OCD and the anxiety disorders. He successfully treated hundreds of clients, and trained scores of psychology interns, psychiatry residents, and social work and nursing trainees. He published 30 journal articles, two self-help books for OCD sufferers, and made numerous presentations on the treatment of panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Dr. Munford also developed and directed the behavior therapy program for the OCD Partial Hospitalization Program at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute where he was Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Subsequently, he co-founded the Anxiety Treatment Center of Northern California and directed its intensive outpatient treatment program for OCD. That is where Susan met and trained with him for five years. That center is now closed because he moved to the San Francisco Bay area where he and Dr. Arna Munford established the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center for OCD & Anxiety. Susan worked with Paul and Arna at this center in San Rafael, which is now closed due to his passing.
Susan is a member of the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC), Anxiety Disorders of America, and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Susan is a graduate of the TLC professional training institute.