Hello there!

Welcome to Caldera Psychotherapy, the private practice of Susan Poznyansky, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.

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I Identify as non-binary, queer, neurodivergent (ADHD), and a person living with a chronic illness. I bring a deeply personal and compassionate approach to my work. 

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I received my master’s degree at Columbia University School of Social Work in New York City. I am a level one trained IFS therapist pursuing certification. I primarily utilize a somatic IFS approach, grounded in the therapeutic relationship as part of healing. In addition, I utilize a trauma-informed, strengths-based perspective to provide client-oriented, evidence-based therapy and case management. At times, I integrate Psycho-Education, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Solution-Based Therapy into my sessions. 

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I started my career as the founder and director of an early childhood program in Portland, Ore., focusing on social-emotional learning. Later, I realized my passion for social work in Seattle working with mothers in recovery from substance use disorders. After graduate school, I worked as a clinical counselor in a residential substance use recovery program in Manhattan, and then as a psychotherapist at a Brooklyn community mental health clinic serving individuals and their families with managing mild-severe mental health diagnoses, suicide risk, life-stage transitions, grief, and other life stressors. I am deeply grateful for the clinical training I received in New York. When I returned to the Pacific Northwest, I worked in a rural hospital supporting individuals and families adjusting to chronic health conditions and navigating long-term care options and in the emergency department assessing for severe acute symptoms, risk, and safety- supporting individuals in active crisis with getting the appropriate level of care. 

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I am originally from Brooklyn, NY, and the first generation of my family born in the U.S. to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants (I'm a proud member of Jewish Voices for Peace). My love for nature was nurtured during summers spent in the Borscht Belt (Catskill Mountains). I now reside on the breathtaking Olympic Peninsula, the ancestral land of the Skokomish people where I  enjoy fishing, writing, swimming, hiking, mushroom foraging, hammocking, and indulging in my favorite hobby: hurkle-durkling (a cozy state of lounging).

I'm also a big fan of Marvel movies.