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. 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.