About

Susan Stone, MA, LMFT

I want to get started!

My Approach

I find that most people benefit from understanding their personal history AND how it might be tripping them up now.

But, while insight is interesting and helpful, it doesn’t always resolve things.  Only looking for insight is a bit like facing backward on a galloping horse… you’re likely to get smacked in the head by a branch you didn’t see coming!

I care about and respect my clients and I value their perceptions and experience.  I believe their challenges are real and hurt. I don’t think that it’s ever useful to say, “Well, compared to so and so, I have little to complain about.”  Being objective and knowing how things stack up is important, but so is knowing why you are feeling as you do, what you have tried to do to manage things, and what you are really trying to accomplish and why.  Therapy is one of the few places where it really is all about YOU.

So, in our work together, we’ll explore things and then, with a nod to your past, we’ll roll up our sleeves and actively work on your present.

I’ll listen (a lot), ask pithy questions (it’s a therapist thing) and make a safe space for you to just be.  …While you might tear up sometimes, you’ll be surprised how often we might also laugh.

My Work

My clinical work focuses on adults who are experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, trauma, attention deficits, addictions, and other diagnoses.  But just as many of my clients are going through stage-of-life issues, like divorce, transitioning into adulthood, parenting, becoming a caregiver to an aging parent, job changes or retirement.   Clients who think they will never be good enough, smart enough, likable enough, or strong enough to xyz… ( i.e. have “imposter syndrome”), are a key specialty.

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist: California: MFC 31503; Colorado: MFT.0001034; NPI: 1043535818

My Background

After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Pitzer College (one of the Claremont Colleges in California), I completed my master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at Philips Graduate University, a Family Systems-oriented institution in Southern California.  I’ve been licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California since 1995 and in Colorado since 2012.

My work has been in a variety of settings ranging from small counseling centers to large community behavioral health agencies.  I’ve also worked in a national not-for-profit research agency, social work entity, addictions treatment center, and in equitable-access healthcare. Along the way, I taught undergraduate psychology at the university level for 20 years.  Every one of these experiences taught me something about processes, operational systems, workplace dynamics, human engagement, and service delivery systems.

And, yes, of course, I’ve been in private practice, first as the owner of Monrovia Counseling Associates, and now as the founder and owner of Artwell & Clarity.

…But education and professional experience are only small parts of anyone’s journey!

I’m a classically trained musician, have been a ski instructor, and I am a hiker & backpacker.  I do art and like to write.  I also have a thing for spreadsheets and building databases (yeah, I know, that is weird).  I read mostly nonfiction: history, anthropology, science, and auto/biographies – but my guilty pleasure is reading historical fiction.

I grew up in Los Angeles, California, but over time also lived in Ogden, Utah and Denver, Colorado (as an Air Force wife), and the Netherlands.  (No, I can’t speak Dutch, but I can make a mean cup of coffee!).  Since 2011, my home has been in the mountains west of Fort Collins, Colorado, but I also live part-time in Taos, New Mexico.

I have 3 dogs and 4 cats.  Assorted wildlife live on my property. Oh, and I have 2 grown children and 2 kiddos-in-law.