Although Lois was born into a loving, stable family, her dad had to travel out of the country for long periods. As a very young girl, Lois felt grief each time he left. Although she knew he was leaving for work, Lois felt like he was abandoning her because she’d done something wrong. Each time he left, she assumed it was because she just wasn’t good enough to make him stay. 

The loss and shame she felt whenever he left her behind led her subconscious mind to form the Core Story that she just wasn’t good enough. 

To cope with the damaging effects of this story, and in hopes of proving her worthiness to her father, Lois learned to take care of as many tasks and as many people as she could. Over the years, she became a highly reliable and very hard worker. She strove to excel at solving problems and at putting out fires. To this day, these skills have served her well at home and in her career.

However, I helped Lois realize that although being highly proficient at so many tasks gained her the respect of family, friends, and colleagues, it came at a great cost to herself. After many years of doing everything for everyone else, she’d become exhausted and resentful. As a result, she was living a smaller version of herself than she was meant to live and getting burnt out in the process.

Through our work together, Lois came to see that it harmed her to feel that she wasn’t enough. She wanted to be as free as possible of the hold that this subconscious belief had on her. 

She wanted to love her life.

With my guidance, Lois learned how to say no, speak up for herself, and align her life with what brought her joy. She was no longer willing to abandon her own needs in order to please others. 

Again and again, she courageously took action to achieve what her heart truly desired. Doing so brought her more loving, authentic relationships and greater inner peace. It also enabled her to make choices with a greater sense of assurance that she was doing the best thing for herself and for her differently-abled daughter.

“Defining my Core Story and understanding how it’s triggered has been a game changer for me, and Susan has been instrumental in this process. Her intuitive gift, her kind manner, and upfront honesty have helped me learn about myself. As a result, I’ve found the courage and strength to stand up for who I am and for what I want.” 

Katherine Elizabeth was raised by a mother with cruel and violent tendencies and by a father who made her feel sexually uncomfortable ever since she was an adolescent. As a young girl, she felt that there was no one to help her and that she was all alone in the world. 

As a result of the physical and emotional pain she suffered, her subconscious mind formed the Core Story that she was worthless.

But despite the suffering she endured at the hands of her parents, when she was growing up, Katherine Elizabeth was determined to be a kind, loving, and generous person. However, her unhealed Core Story unconsciously made her sacrifice her own needs and prioritize the needs of others. What’s more, her inability to set clear boundaries often resulted in others taking advantage of her kindness and hurting her.

Working with Katherine Elizabeth, I helped her recognize that her Core Story was making her be disrespected and discounted. With this in mind, I taught her how to set boundaries so that she wasn’t constantly being taken advantage of. 

With my encouragement, she began to speak up for herself for the first time, and to ask for what she wanted and needed. 

Katherine Elizabeth at last understood that she was worthy of love and respect. This enabled her to be kind towards the people she loved but also clear about her own needs, which in time led to healthier relationships. From this time onwards, she stopped abandoning her own needs for the sake of others.

“You gave me the confidence to follow my dreams and to stand up for myself. I am sending you much love and appreciation for all the many ways you helped me find my true inner self. I can never truly thank you enough for all you did, for showing me I was worthy of love and protection. I have inner peace now where there was fear and anger all directed toward myself. I am now comfortable with who I am after many years of struggling.” 

Lori grew up in a household where everything revolved around keeping her father happy, or at minimum around preventing him from getting angry. She learned early on that in order not to incur her father’s scary moods she’d better toe the line and fly under the radar. 

Her mother did the best she could to parent Lori, but she frequently disregarded Lori’s needs in order to keep the peace. Moreover,  her older brother resented her being born and disliked her from birth. 

As a result of being constantly disregarded by close family members, Lori developed the Core Story that those she loved would frequently discount and minimize her. 

To cope, she learned to quieten her voice and swallow her truth.

Lori came to see me because she knew “something was off” in her life. As a result of our work together, Lori began to know that it was her birthright to value her own worth and to speak her voice. She learnt that her feelings mattered and that she could advocate for herself.

Although her birth family didn’t like these changes, Lori was determined to leave behind her old behavior and she persisted in breaking generational patterns. She wanted to avoid passing the same self-abandoning habits down to her own children. 

By sticking up for what she needed and by honoring her own feelings, Lori no longer discounted or minimized herself. 

What’s more, she now embraces self-advocacy as a healthy form of self-love.

“Everyone has a Core Story. You deserve to know yours. Susan will help you find it.”

Mae grew up in the shadow of a dark family secret. Although her father provided for the family, he regularly used hard drugs. The family was forced to manage her father’s addiction and to hide the shame of it from the world. To cope with the fear and stress that she experienced as a result, Mae learned to put her needs and desires on the back burner.

This unhealthy survival mechanism caused her subconscious mind to form the Core Story that her needs didn’t matter. 

In fact, as she grew older she even began to have difficulty identifying what her needs and desires were. Paired with her big heart, not knowing what she really wanted or needed made her highly vulnerable to people who took advantage of her kindness. 

When Mae sought me out, she was seeing a man who, like her father years earlier, had a drug addiction and would engage in risky behavior to support his habit. Although Mae tried to help him, he took advantage of her supportive nature, especially as his life began to spiral out of control. I helped Mae see that if she allowed herself to continue being manipulated he would end up destroying her.

With my guidance, Mae understood that her subconscious Core Story was pushing her to abandon her own needs in order to fix, rescue, and save her boyfriend. I helped her realize that the chaos this person was creating was ruining her life, and that it was time for her to save herself.

I empowered Mae to access her courage and her own inner wisdom. 

For the first time, she spoke her truth and told him to move out. She further advocated for herself by getting a restraining order when he once again tried to cross her boundaries. 

Ever since then, Mae has listened to her own needs and desires and has charted a new course for her life. Her Core Story no longer undermines her.

"I've learned to trust myself and I'm no longer afraid to put my needs first. I continue to speak up for myself, so that I can have the life that I deserve. I have never felt more empowered."

Vonnie’s father left the family when she was very young. After that, she didn’t see him again for many years. Once he left, his name was never again mentioned in the house. It was almost as though he’d never existed. The devastating event of her father’s departure filled Vonnie with grief but no one was available to help her understand what had happened so she buried the pain deep inside her. 

In addition, there really was no time for her to grieve. Her mother now had to raise both her brother and her single-handedly, so Vonnie had to step up to the plate to help. And help she did. Vonnie stepped in to make sure that her perpetually sad and burdened mom would come home at night to a clean kitchen and orderly home. 

These circumstances led Vonnie to form the Core Story that she had to abandon her own needs in order to make others happy.

To cope, she became highly proficient at taking care of things and at getting things done. She also became a cheerful child, always lifting her mother up when she was down and offering advice to others in need. Her kind, empathic heart and her wisdom beyond her years caused others to seek her out. Eventually, however, being the strong one, the helper, and the perennial confidante became exhausting. She felt that although she was giving everything to everyone else, no one was there for her. 

With my guidance, Vonnie came to understand that she wasn’t a bad person if she set healthy boundaries and prioritized her needs. 

She began to use her voice and ask for what she wanted and soon her life began to change for the better. She created new, healthier patterns with her dependent mother, so that she could be a loving daughter and yet have a life of her own. 

I helped Vonnie understand that her needs mattered deeply and that it was her birthright to carve out space and time to care for herself. As a result of learning to set healthy boundaries, her relationships with her mom, friends, and even her children deepened. Vonnie now had her own back, not just everyone else’s. 

"Susan expertly helped me peel back the layers of trauma, disappointment and despair, while using her intuitive abilities to see the real me. She gently guided me and walked with me to heal my struggles from the past and reminded me of my strengths to build my future."

The story of Paige is highly relatable to the “overachievers” and “go-getters” of the world. She is someone who was raised by parents who did the best they could to make her feel loved. Despite this, they placed her in a daycare situation that made her feel unsafe. The daycare provider favored her own children over Paige and turned a blind eye when they’d bully and exclude her. 

The lack of protection at her daycare caused Paige’s subconscious mind to form the Core Story that nobody would be there to protect her in unsafe situations. 

Paige’s Core Story began rearing its ugly head as she entered adulthood. It made her think that in order to be “safe” and in control of her life she would need to get financially secure.

Over the years, Paige worked extremely hard to make a lot of money. She became hyper-competent at everything she did, excelled in her field, and generated a lot of income along the way. Yet her incessant striving was having deleterious effects on her mental and physical health. 

After years of establishing this hectic pace, she began to work with me and soon realized that her relentless need to increase her income in order to feel safe was taking a severe toll on her well-being. She felt burned-out, overwhelmed, and depressed. In working with me, she learned to say no to tasks that she no longer wanted to take on. She began to delegate and to take time to deepen her self-care practices. 

With my encouragement, Paige was able to have a greater sense of self-compassion. 

She began to understand that she was safe without having to be constantly pushing herself to perform and make more and more money. This understanding helped her release the hold that her Core Story had over her. Finally, she was able to pursue a healthier work-life balance that brought her more fulfillment and inner peace.

"The awareness from our intuitive counseling sessions led me to feel stronger about who I am and what I have to offer. The work with you brought about confidence that I always knew was there but never could reach due to the stories I kept holding onto. I have achieved such by taking accountability and action from our talks and instilled the confidence to make me feel more than enough just as I am."