Depth and insight, paired with skills you can actually use.

Portrait of Suzanne Bernier, LMFT

Who I work with

Individuals

Adults working through anxiety, relationship patterns, trauma, or a transition that's knocked them off course.

Teens

I work with teens dealing with everything from friendship struggles and emotional dysregulation to self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Whatever it is, I bring the same steadiness.

Parents

Support for the adults holding it together: understanding what your kid needs, and what you need to keep showing up.

How I work

01 / DBT

Skills you can use today

Concrete tools for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and getting through conflict without torching the relationship.

02 / EMDR

Processing without re-living

For memories or experiences that still fire like they're happening now — moving them into the past where they belong.

03 / Attachment

The pattern beneath the pattern

Looking at how early relationships shaped what feels safe, and building a different template from here.

What brings people in

01

Emotion Regulation

When feelings arrive to fast or too big, your responses create new problems, and the coping strategies you've used no longer work.

02

Anxiety & Avoidance

Social anxiety, avoidance patterns, and the undercurrent of dread that shapes decisions before you notice it's there.

03

Trauma

When the past intrudes on the present: flashbacks, triggers, a nervous system that has trouble settling. EMDR helps reprocess what's stuck.

04

Relationships & Attachment

Patterns that show up with parents, partners, friends — usually older than the relationship they're playing out in.

05

Life Transitions

Whether you're finding your footing in your twenties, navigating divorce or retirement, or facing the end of life, I help clients move through major life changes with more clarity and less isolation.

06

Going Deeper

Exploring meaning, purpose, and spirituality, and what it means to live in alignment with what matters to you most.

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”— Pema Chödrön
Suzanne Bernier, LMFT

Hi, I'm Suzanne

I decided I wanted to be a therapist in ninth grade, when I took my first Intro to Psychology class. To my emotionally reactive adolescent brain, the idea that our thoughts might determine our behavior, and that we can choose which thoughts we think, was revolutionary. I chose to major in Psychology in college, and have been working in the field (for the most part) ever since.

My graduate program focused on cognitive behavioral psychology, but my post-graduate training was psychodynamic. That experience broadened how I understand complex behavior and motivations: relational and attachment patterns, the unconscious pull of old dynamics, and why we keep ending up in the same place even when we’re trying not to.

I want to understand what’s underneath a pattern and I want you to leave sessions with something you can actually use. That combination — depth and action — is basically how I approach each session. I don’t believe insight alone creates change. Understanding yourself matters, but at some point you have to do something with what you learn, and that’s where I push. I’ll tell you what I’m noticing, even when it’s uncomfortable, and I’ll ask you to try things in between our sessions.

Ready to start? Let's talk.

Consultation calls are free and take about 15 minutes — enough to know if this is the right fit before we schedule a first session.

suzanne@suzanneberniermft.com
San Francisco · Marin · CaliforniaIn-person & Telehealth
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