Susan Close, LCPC, LMHC

Owner | Psychotherapist, Susan Close Psychotherapy & Wellness

Free Self-Improvement Speaker in Chicago

  • Wait… Could I Have Trauma? The Hidden Ways Survival Shapes Adult Life

    TOPIC CATEGORY: Self-Improvement

    Most people think trauma only refers to extreme events, but unresolved survival patterns often show up as anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, burnout, emotional reactivity, and repeating painful relationship dynamics. In this eye-opening and hopeful presentation, Susan helps audiences understand the overlooked ways trauma can shape adult life and offers practical first steps toward healing, regulation, and change. MORE >

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  • Beyond Blame: How Men and Women Are Both Struggling in Modern Love

    TOPIC CATEGORY: Self-Improvement

    Modern relationships are full of confusion, pressure, resentment, and mixed expectations. Instead of blaming one another, this refreshing and balanced presentation explores how both men and women are navigating new emotional realities, changing roles, and unmet needs. Susan offers practical insight into communication, connection, and how couples can move from conflict to understanding.

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  • Love on Trial: When Relationship Therapy Feels Like a Courtroom

    TOPIC CATEGORY: Self-Improvement

    Many couples come into conflict believing they are arguing about the same issue—but often they are trying to solve entirely different problems. One person is fighting for reassurance. The other is fighting for fairness. One wants understanding. The other wants the argument to end. In this witty, eye-opening presentation, psychotherapist Susan Close shares what she has learned from years in the therapy room, where conflict can sound less like connection and more like cross-examination. MORE >

    With humor, relatable stories, and practical tools, Susan helps audiences recognize common traps like mindreading, defensiveness, scorekeeping, assumption-making, and trying to win instead of understand.

    Attendees leave with strategies to slow conflict down, communicate more effectively, and move from opposition to partnership.

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  • Not Another Workshop: What School Leaders Actually Need

    TOPIC CATEGORY: Educational

    School leaders are often asked to attend one more training, one more initiative, one more workshop—while already running on empty. This is different. A restorative, practical experience designed to help school leaders exhale, reconnect with themselves, and leave feeling lighter than they arrived. Through reflection, nervous system reset tools, meaningful connection, and realistic strategies for boundaries and sustainability, participants receive what they rarely get: support. MORE >

    No endless slides. No performative participation. No added burden. Just something genuinely helpful.
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