Susan is a teaching fellow in the counselling programme at Laidlaw College. 

Her professional journey began in teaching, and she taught for 17 years, in South Africa. In this time, she found her passion for counselling therapy and re-trained; beginning with a bachelors’ degree in Health Sciences and continuing with a Psychology honours degree. Her interest in the Gestalt approach to Play Therapy led to her completing a Master of Arts in Psychology, through the North West University in South Africa. Susan emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand, with her family, in 2016. 

Susan favours Person-Centred, Narrative, Gestalt and Psychodynamic as well as experiential and creative approaches. She has a private practice, working with children, adolescents and adults and has experience counselling in primary schools. She is also a contract lecturer in the AUT’s Department of Psychotherapy and Counselling in the School of Clinical Science.

A key area of her research is ways of promoting spirituality, and spiritual well-being and its influence on mental health. She is currently interested in the relationships between spirituality and connecting with nature through nature therapy.