About Susan

Susan Warren Warshow is the Founder of the DEFT (Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy) Institute, which celebrates its 15th anniversary in January 2027 and offers an ongoing monthly training program for clinicians with an international reach. She has presented more than 150 recorded therapy sessions at national and international conferences, workshops, and training programs, drawn from her work with a large and diverse clientele, offering an unusually transparent window into the therapeutic process and its outcomes. She is the author of A Therapist's Handbook to Dissolve Shame and Defense: Master the Moment (Routledge, 2021) and co-author of the forthcoming The Practice of Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy: A Shame Sensitive Workbook (Routledge). She is a leading expert in the treatment of shame and has developed a distinctive shame-sensitive, compassion-centered approach to experiential dynamic therapy, integrating somatic, attachment, relational, and psychospiritual orientations within a psychodynamic framework. She is an internationally recognized trainer, supervisor, clinical educator, Certified IEDTA Teacher/Supervisor, a faculty member of the ISTDP Institute, and a clinician with a full-time private practice. She has presented to the following organizations: IEDTA, SEPI, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the Brief Therapy Conference, the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and others, and has guest lectured at multiple California universities and professional schools. Earlier in her career, she served as Media Director for L.A.'s first child abuse hotline, coordinating with public affairs directors at major media outlets throughout Los Angeles County, producing more than 100 public presentations on child abuse and neglect, and catalyzing an award-winning documentary on the subject. Her photography has appeared annually in the juried Mirrors of the Mind Art Exhibit, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, for more than ten years.