Susan Tinsley Daily, LMHC

I work primarily with couples of all ages, orientations, and stages in life, both in person and via telehealth. My specialities include healthy and unhealthy behaviors within relationships, sex and intimacy, desire discrepancy, sexual health and education, premarital and beginning stages of relationships, teen and young adult relationships, sexual assault survivors, parenting issues, separation and divorce, LGBTQIA+, poly/open relationships, children of alcoholics/addicts and porn/sex addiction. In addition to weekly couples counseling, I offer Discernment Counseling and half-day, one day, and two day Couples Intensives (please see our Intensive page for my bio there). I am trained in the Developmental Model (differentiation, attachment and neuroscience) for couples work, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, narrative therapy, reality therapy, and motivational interviewing. All of my work is trauma-informed and inclusive of all cultural and personal identities.

Being in a relationship is phenomenally rewarding and incredibly challenging. It's never too early for couples counseling - in fact, many people wait too long to change habits and behaviors that can then become entrenched. We will explore how to manage emotional reactivity when faced with your partner's differences, how to increase effective communication and argue without wounding, how to repair quickly, how to increase intimacy, and how to lean in and soothe both your and your partner's nervous systems so you feel like a team. You will learn skills that you can use right away.

My life’s work is to help others improve their relational connections, thus strengthening our integrated community and reducing trauma and harm in the world. I foster a warm, connected therapeutic environment in order for us to do important work together.  I will be non-judgmental, empathetic, humorous and tough-loving, and I'll ask you to be courageous, vulnerable and curious about your thoughts and behaviors. I will help you create insights, change habits, confront fears and self-defeating choices, and strengthen your relationship with yourself and others. You get to decide what to explore and how quickly or slowly you want to make changes towards the most authentic version of yourself, so that you can relate to loved ones without experiencing or causing distress. It is my goal to make sure my clients feel respected, recognized, supported and empowered as they navigate their life journey, individually and together. 

I hold a Masters in Teaching and a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and have taught middle, high school and college. My journey has included being an Instructor, Course Director, and Education Director at the North Carolina Outward Bound School, an Instructor and Risk Management Director for Where There Be Dragons, a professional consultant for schools, camps and outdoor programs, an educator for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison, the Dean of Students at the Outdoor Academy and the Director of Counseling and Wellness at The Putney School. Along with my counseling practice, I design and teach a comprehensive, developmentally appropriate Health and Wellness curriculum for middle and high school students, and find great joy in teaching teenagers and young adults how to feel empowered in their emotional, relational, sexual, ethical and physical identity formation. In my free time, I enjoy being immersed in nature, getting my hands in the dirt, being in community, and spending time with my two teens and my black-and-white therapy dog, Moonshine.

Available for in-person and tele-health counseling