Today we’d like to introduce you to Susannah Muller.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My path as a therapist evolved in an unexpected way. My first career was as a lawyer. After attending Stanford as an undergrad and then UCLA School of Law, I found that while those degrees were huge achievements, I did not enjoy the end result – being a lawyer. I enjoyed interacting with clients, being creative, writing, and problem-solving, but often doubted whether I was truly doing something positive with my life. After about eight years I ultimately decided law was not the right fit for me.
I went back to school to become a therapist. Being a therapist allows me to do all the things I love – I interact with people, I problem solve, and I get to be creative. But the thing I value most is helping people. That keeps me going and gets me out of bed in the morning.
But that wasn’t the only unexpected twist in the development of my career. I was finishing my second go-around with graduate school and starting to counsel people when I had my first child. I had learned all the traditional approaches to therapy, but while some were effective, none that I had come across seemed to truly provide long term positive change for people.
I had heard about an approach called Emotional Freedom Technique (“EFT”), which involves tapping two of your fingers on certain points on your face and upper body to feel better. At first, I thought it was ridiculous and dismissed it as way too “out there”. But then I found myself in need of real help. When we started trying to have our second child, I went through a series of miscarriages. I had a very difficult time getting over them, though I was doing all the stuff I had learned and was seeing a therapist of my own.
Since nothing else was working for me, I decided to investigate “tapping” as EFT is also called. I learned that the technique is well-grounded in scientific research, and that psychologists I respected considered it to be a powerful tool. Then I did some more research and learned how to do it on myself. And it worked! In a short period of time, I no longer got tearful in the grocery store when I saw a pregnant woman or started crying driving down the street when I saw a woman pushing a stroller with a baby in it. I was amazed and made several of my friends try it because I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how this simple technique was working. All my friends were equally amazed and excited.
I started using tapping EFT with my clients and saw amazing leaps in their healing. They got over things more quickly, and as I learned to use it in deeper ways, I saw long lasting changes being made. It was more powerful and quicker than almost any other approach I had seen. As I learned more about it, I realized it can be used on many levels. The most basic is simple relief from distressing emotions – as I had done with the pain from my miscarriages.
But EFT tapping can also be used in much deeper ways that create real lasting change. For instance, I had a client who had been physically and verbally abused as a child and not surprisingly, she had low self-worth. We worked together to identify those events which had most convinced her about her “worthlessness.” We used tapping to release the negative emotions those events created for her and that she still carried with her. With the emotional charge gone, she started to see these events more objectively. I knew she was doing well when she told me that her father’s targeting her with his abuse wasn’t about her being a bad person, it was about her dad’s own awful childhood that led to his anger and drinking. That was truly a miracle and it changed her life. It shifted her whole way of seeing herself and the world. And by using tapping, we got there much more quickly than with just talking it through. (Often, while people understand something intellectually, they don’t process it on a deeper, “gut” level. Tapping helps to take it deeper, quicker.)
EFT is also great with anxiety and phobias. Many times, I’ve helped people get over a fear of driving on freeways, a fear of flying, fear of public speaking and many other fears. I use EFT (sometimes in combination with one or two other techniques) on these fears and it’s amazing to watch them dissolve. It gives people greater freedom in their lives.
Needless to say, after EFT tapping helped me and my clients so profoundly, I got very interested in this type of leading edge holistic therapy. I became a member of a group called the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). (“Energy Psychology” or “EP” is the term coined for these types of techniques.) I go to ACEP’s fascinating conferences each year because they bring in leading researchers and healers and offer world-class trainings in innovative techniques. While these techniques were initially met with the same skepticism I had at first, there are now over 100 scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals that clearly establish their effectiveness. (See this link for information on the research: http://www.energypsych.org/?Research_Landing).
So, even though I thought tapping EFT was ridiculous at the start of my career, I now use it regularly with clients. I integrate it with other EP approaches and with other more traditional approaches I’ve found to be effective for long term change. This integrative blend I’ve created makes my practice exciting and rewarding. I love staying on top of the latest research and the newest methods being developed because my goal is always for the most healing in the least painful way, as quickly as possible.
As a side note, I did eventually have a second child. But though we did go through all that Western medicine had to offer in the form of IVF, it failed (several times). My second full term pregnancy came after traditional Chinese medicine in the form of acupuncture, acupressure, herbs and diet changes. This experience opened me up further to what alternate methods of healing have to offer. In my view, it makes sense to take the best parts from both Western and Eastern medicine and integrate them in order to create real, positive, healing change. That’s how I arrived at my approach to therapy and healing in general.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I struggled for some time with uncertainty about the path I was supposed to be on. When I graduated from Stanford, at the same time hanging up my suit as a competitive swimmer, I didn’t know what to do. Besides school work, my focus had been on swimming since age ten. I went to the Olympic Trails in 1984 and 1988. I was an All-American swimmer all four years at Stanford, and in my senior year was the Pac-10 Champion in the 200 backstroke. It took a lot of time, energy and focus. Suddenly I didn’t have that in my life anymore and I wasn’t sure what direction to go in. I had majored in English and Psychology, and because I enjoyed writing ended up going to law school. I enjoyed school and made good friends there, but as I mentioned above, being a lawyer wasn’t how I wanted to spend my days. It was my desire to help others that ultimately led to my second, and much more satisfying, career.
But that second career certainly didn’t start off easy, since I had my children just as I was starting my practice. As a solo practitioner, everything about my business depends on me. That means I need to answer the phone, manage my websites, execute marketing, do the bookkeeping and paperwork, etc., on top of the actual counseling time. In the beginning, it felt like a three-ring circus and I’m the juggler on the tightrope. Over time, I have learned to shift gears more effectively – when I’m with the kids, that is my focus. When I’m at work, that is my focus. That’s not to say I don’t check in with the kids throughout the day. Or that I don’t try to answer a phone call from a client when I’m with my kids if it seems reasonable. It’s still a circus, but I don’t fall off the tightrope quite as often.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I call my practice Soulful Integrative Therapy. I thrive on following the latest developments in neuroscience and other sciences that are on the leading edge of psychological well-being. I love learning about the newest studies and what is effective for helping people long term and what is not working like we once thought it did. The field of neuroscience has really exploded in the last 20 or so years because they have developed new ways to map how the brain is working. It’s provided us with great information about the human brain and is one of the reasons we hear so much about “mindfulness” now.
For people who are interested, I also incorporate a spiritual element to my therapy. Spiritual growth can be a huge part of helping people not only get past their problems, but thrive in their lives.
So my practice is different in that I don’t specialize in treating only one kind of problem. I specialize in how I approach problems. In a nutshell, I’ve developed an approach that integrates modern psychotherapy with energy healing and spirituality. And it works. It works for all types of issues, such as alcohol or marijuana abuse, family issues, depression or anxiety. In my experience, for therapy to work, it doesn’t matter what the issue is – it’s the process that counts.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most?
San Diego is a great location for my practice because people here are open to newer methods and holistic approaches for therapy. There are some great schools here that turn out wonderful therapists as well as other types of healing arts schools, making San Diego a great community of healers. We all have different specialties and methods, so there is room for everyone to grow their business. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in this field and I really enjoy that part of living in San Diego.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5230 Carroll Canyon Rd., Suite 314
San Diego, CA 92121 - Website: www.Therapy-SanDiego.com
- Phone: 619-787-2743
- Email: Susannah@Therapy-SanDiego.com
Image Credit:
Susannah Muller
Stephen Muller
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