Susan Tully, MS, LMFT, OTR/L
Helping individuals and couples understand themselves more deeply, heal from painful experiences, and build more connected, meaningful lives.
Who This Work Is Best Suited For
- You keep finding yourself in the same relationship patterns, despite wanting things to be different.
- You long to feel closer to your partner but keep getting caught in cycles of conflict, misunderstanding, or emotional distance.
- You feel overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, or intense emotions and wish you understood why your mind and body respond the way they do.
- You’ve experienced trauma, loss, or painful life events that continue to shape how you feel, think, or relate to others.
- You’ve spent so much time caring for others that you’ve lost touch with your own needs, identity, or well-being.
- You’re navigating a significant life transition and want to move through it with greater clarity, resilience, and purpose.
Hi, I’m Susan Tully.
Our life experiences shape us in powerful ways. The relationships we grow up in, the roles we carry, the stress we’ve endured all influence how we connect with others, regulate our emotions, and move through the world.
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and deeply committed to those they love. Yet beneath the surface, they often feel overwhelmed, disconnected, emotionally exhausted, or stuck in patterns that no longer serve them.
They aren’t broken — they’re relying on ways of coping that once helped them get through difficult experiences but now leave them feeling stuck.
I believe therapy is about much more than gaining insight. Together, we’ll explore not only what is happening, but how those experiences are showing up emotionally, relationally, in your body, and in everyday life so you can begin responding to yourself—and those you love—with greater awareness, compassion, and intention.
How I Approach Therapy
What matters most to me is creating a space where you feel genuinely understood, emotionally safe, and supported enough to explore the parts of your story that may have felt difficult to face alone.
As both a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an Occupational Therapist with more than 30 years of experience, I bring a perspective that is both deeply relational and highly practical. Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of supporting individuals and families through trauma, medical challenges, caregiving, and major life transitions. Those experiences continue to shape the way I understand resilience, adaptation, and people’s remarkable capacity for healing and growth. They also remind us that our struggles rarely affect just one part of our lives—they influence the way we communicate, care for ourselves, navigate relationships, and move through the world.
One of the things I love most is helping people make sense of their experiences. In addition to my private practice, I’ve spent more than two decades teaching graduate students about mental health and human behavior. Teaching has reinforced what I see every day in therapy: when people understand themselves with greater clarity and compassion, they become more empowered to change. Insight isn’t the destination—but it often provides the foundation for healing.
I approach therapy from a holistic, systemic, and trauma-informed perspective, recognizing that emotional well-being, physical health, relationships, and daily lives are deeply interconnected. Rather than focusing only on symptoms, we’ll work together to uncover the deeper patterns influencing your thoughts, emotions, relationships, and responses to life’s challenges while building the awareness, practical skills, and self-compassion needed for lasting change.
I also help clients better understand their nervous systems. Rather than viewing emotional reactions as personal flaws, we’ll explore how stress, trauma, and life experiences become embodied—showing up as anxiety, emotional flooding, shutting down, chronic tension, hypervigilance, or disconnection. As these patterns begin to make more sense, they also become more changeable. My hope is that you’ll come to see your reactions with curiosity and compassion rather than self-criticism.
My work integrates Emotionally Focused Therapy, the neuroscience of attachment, EMDR, and trauma-informed care to help clients strengthen emotional regulation, improve communication, and develop healthier ways of relating to themselves and the people they love.
A Bit More About Me
Clients often describe me as warm, genuine, collaborative, encouraging, and easy to talk to. I believe therapy should be a place where you feel accepted exactly as you are while also feeling gently challenged toward the life and relationships you want to create. We’ll make room for difficult conversations, meaningful growth, and, when the moment allows, a little lightness and humor along the way.
Outside of therapy, I’m the mother of three sons who continually inspire me and fill my life with laughter. I’m also grateful to be celebrating 30 years of marriage with my husband. Those relationships continue to be some of my greatest teachers, reminding me that growth happens over time and that love, resilience, and connection are built in the ordinary moments of everyday life.
When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me spending time with family and friends, staying active outdoors, reading, traveling, or enjoying a creative project like making jewelry, knitting, or writing. I’ve always believed that healing isn’t only about working through what’s painful. It’s also about reconnecting with the parts of ourselves that bring us joy, creativity, purpose, and connection. The things that make us feel most like ourselves aren’t simply hobbies—they’re some of the ways we reconnect with who we are and create lives that feel rich and fulfilling.
My hope is that therapy helps you not only heal from what’s been painful, but also rediscover your strengths, reconnect with who you are, and build a life that feels rich, connected, authentic, and deeply your own. Because building that kind of life isn’t separate from healing—it’s often one of its most meaningful outcomes.
Working With Susan
My work is especially helpful for individuals and couples who want to better understand the emotional, relational, and nervous system patterns shaping their lives while developing healthier ways of responding to themselves and others.
Common reasons clients seek therapy include:
- Trauma, PTSD & Complex Trauma
- Couples Therapy & Relationship Repair
- Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Dysregulation
- EMDR Therapy
- Family of Origin Influences & Attachment Patterns
- Life Transitions & Identity Shifts
- Depression
- Communication & Conflict
- Parenting Challenges
- Emerging Adulthood
- Medical Illness, Caregiving & Life Crises
- Wellness, Lifestyle & Healthy Habit Development
License & Certifications
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist | Arizona (#16542)
- Licensed Occupational Therapist | Arizona (#0623)
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Master of Science in Occupational Therapy | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy | Fuller Theological Seminary
- EMDR Therapist
- Advanced Specialty Training in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples and Individuals
- Specialty Training in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and DBT
- Advanced Training in Personality Disorders and Emotional Manipulation
Susan Tully’s Specialties:
- Anxiety Therapy
- Couple Therapy
- Depression Therapy
- EMDR Therapy
- Individual Therapy
- Trauma Therapy & PTSD
- Phase of life stress and transitions
- Emerging adulthood
- Feeling stuck
- Difficulty communicating
- Individuals and families experiencing medical issues or crises
- Parenting concerns
- Wellness and Lifestyle enhancement
Whether you’re seeking support as an individual or as a couple, therapy offers an opportunity to slow down, better understand yourself, and create lasting change. Together, we’ll work toward helping you feel more connected—to yourself, to the people you love, and to the life you want to build.