The truth is,
we all long for connection & belonging.
Welcome
Relationship Therapist, Susie Ortega, LCSW, trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) pulls from her personal experience in relationship loss & recovery to give couples a second chance in healing their own relationship injuries. Naming the hard stuff is not comfortable, yet necessary! By dismantling shame, couples, that once felt stuck and resentful, can once again bond and live safely & securely.
Whether you are showing up with your romantic partner or individually, Susie honors your courage to do the hard, yet meaningful, work of exposing your truth and creating a pathway to repairing relationship injuries.
We truly are better, together!
Licensed Clinical Therapist (LCSW)
Certified Perinatal Mental Health Counselor (PMH-C)
Trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT)
Master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago.
Specialties
Couples Therapy
Perinatal Mental Health
Premarital Counseling
Intersecting Identities
Raising Bicultural Children
Breaking Intergenerational Trauma
Betrayal Trauma
Addiction
Grief & Traumatic Loss
Inner Child Healing
About Me
With both professional expertise and personal experience in trauma recovery, I bring a compassionate and trauma-informed approach to therapy. I specialize in helping individuals and couples heal and grow through a therapeutic relationship rooted in trust and connection.
Grounded in Attachment and Family Systems Theory, my work is culturally sensitive and guided by humility. Whether you're navigating trauma or seeking to strengthen your relationships, I offer a supportive space to explore, grow, and thrive.
“When [they] realized that loss, abandonment, rejection, and betrayal were guiding [them] home, [they] stopped trying to rewrite the chapters of pain and allowed a story of empowerment to begin.”
What is Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples?
“Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a well-known humanistic approach to psychotherapy formulated in the 1980’s and developed in tandem with the science of adult attachment, a profound developmental theory of personality and intimate relationships. This science has expanded our understanding of individual dysfunction and health as well as the nature of love relationships and family bonds. Attachment views human beings as innately relational, social and wired for intimate bonding with others. The EFT model prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation as the key organizing agents in individual experience and key relationship interactions.”
- The International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)
“We must recognize that we are more than ‘homo sapiens’. We are ‘homo vinculum’ -the one who bonds with others. And these bonds are what will save us. They always have.”