Susan McCarthy is a Licensed Professional Counselor with over 35 years of experience working with young people in the public school setting as a teacher and as a professional school counselor. After graduating from college at the University of Florida, she moved to Atlanta and started her career as a classroom teacher in the secondary school setting. She recognized the emotional needs of the young people she taught and decided to pursue a career in the School-Counseling field, earning two graduate degrees in Counseling Psychology at Georgia State University. Throughout the 35 plus years she spent in public education, Susan served as a professional school counselor at every school level from elementary to high school, which enabled her to work with students at every developmental level from early childhood through late adolescence.
Susan's interest in providing leadership in the school counseling field led her to work at the Georgia Department of Education as a School Counseling consultant, where she was responsible for designing training programs for school counselors to enhance their professional development. As a consultant, she presented workshops state-wide in Georgia on various topics relating to the school counseling field. She was selected to be a trainer in the implementation of the ASCA National Standards and Model for School Counseling Programs. She later served in an administrative capacity, by serving as the Director of the School Counseling program in a large metro school system.
Additionally, Susan became involved in leadership activities through her professional association with the Georgia School Counselors Association. Her leadership activities included editing the Professional Journal and Newsletter of the Association, and serving as President of GSCA in 2005-2006.
One of her specific areas of interest as a Licensed Professional Counselor is to assist young people in successfully negotiating the challenges of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood by developing positive social skills, coping strategies for their emotional challenges, and tools for academic success.
In the years she has been working as an LPC she has also been trained in various clinical strategies for use with adults as well as children in helping them with emotional regulation and coping with difficulties in their lives. She incorporates the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapies along with evidenced based Mindfulness Strategies to assist her clients. She sees clients in the Marietta and Acworth offices.