Our Doctors
Dr. Susan Cooney, PHD

Meet Dr. Susan Cooney, PHD

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Susan Cooney is a clinical psychologist licensed in New York and Maine. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, her graduate degree from Boston University, and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Saybrook University, an APA-accredited program. She has extensive experience working in private practice with high-functioning adults, parents, and couples.

Dr. Cooney works with individuals, couples, parents, and executives navigating anxiety, career-related stress, relationship and parenting challenges, and the emotional complexities of family life. Her work is particularly attuned to the pressures faced by parents raising children and adolescents while managing demanding professional and personal roles. She supports clients through life transitions including career decisions, caregiving responsibilities, and changes related to aging, identity, and relationships.

Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Cooney worked in the real asset sector, giving her firsthand experience in business environments and organizational dynamics. This background informs her pragmatic, grounded therapeutic style and provides a nuanced understanding of workplace stress, leadership pressures, and career transitions. She works with professionals navigating performance demands, self-doubt, and identity shifts related to success and change.

In her work with couples, Dr. Cooney focuses on the impact of career demands, parenting pressures, and family life on intimate relationships. She works with couples experiencing communication difficulties, loss of connection, feelings of being unappreciated, patterns of criticism, and trust concerns. Her approach is strengths-based and solution-focused, thoughtfully integrating family-of-origin perspectives and blending principles from Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Gottman Method to help partners de-escalate reactive cycles, better understand emotional needs, and strengthen connection through more open and meaningful communication.

Dr. Cooney integrates evidence-based modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, to help clients identify and reframe unhelpful thought patterns, enhance emotional regulation, and build distress tolerance. She also uses depth-oriented and exploratory techniques to address core beliefs and relational patterns that affect parenting, partnerships, and overall well-being. Elements of Positive Psychology are incorporated to support resilience, meaning, and long-term fulfillment, while helping clients clarify values, increase self-awareness, and develop practical tools for managing stress, emotional reactivity, and trauma-related patterns.

Dr. Cooney also brings a trauma-informed perspective to her work, informed by her clinical experience and authorship of Caregivers, Trauma, and the Road to Resiliency. She has a deep understanding of the emotional toll associated with parenting, caregiving, responsibility, and cumulative stress, and works with individuals impacted by both acute and chronic trauma. Her approach emphasizes sustainable caregiving, healthy boundaries, and resilience as an evolving process of healing and growth.

Dr. Cooney is known for her grounded, engaging, and compassionate style. She offers a thoughtful and private space where clients feel supported in gaining insight, navigating challenges, and creating lasting personal and relational change.

Professional Memberships

•  American Psychological Association (APA)
• Harvard Faculty Club

Licenses

• Licensed Psychologist, State of New York: (#027012)

Affiliations