Meet Suzanne Wallach

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Suzanne Wallach. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Suzanne, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

I think that developing confidence and self-esteem comes from two things: working on yourself constantly and doing esteemable acts. In my case, and the case of my work life, it came through constantly bettering myself through consistent training in the field and my chosen modality of therapy and making sure that the team that works with me is the best trained in the field and also engaging in esteemable acts such as offering sliding scale therapy to people who otherwise could not afford our services, offering higher than average salary and benefits to our staff, and helping pay for training for our staff because it not only benefits them, it benefits our practice as a whole and our clients.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the owner and Clinical Director of Suzanne Wallach & Associates and SoCal DBT. I have been practicing since 2008 and have had my private practice since 2016. I specialize in treating Borderline Personality Disorder, Complex Trauma, and Mood Disorders. I also work with many higher-profile individuals in my practice and specialize in the issues that high-profile individuals deal with on a daily basis. I am able to provide home visits for these clients and also work around their shooting and travel schedules.

What I feel is so special about our practice is our team. There are eight of us in total, and we each offer something completely different. While we are all intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, from there, we also each offer specialized training in different modalities to treat different diagnoses like OCD, LGBTQIA issues, ADHD, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, developmental trauma, and attachment trauma, issues that are particular to young children and adolescents. We have therapists trained in EMDR, prolonged exposure, TRM, CBT, ACT, and many other areas, and all of us continue to train to stay on the cutting edge of what is offered so that we can help our clients as much as possible. I truly feel like when someone calls us, there is really one of us that can help anyone, and I find that this is so rare, even in a huge city like Los Angeles, and it was really what I was striving for when I built my practice,

Last, our team truly likes one another and learns from one another on a daily basis, which I find rare. So, I am very proud that I was able to build something as valuable as that.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think the three skills that were most impactful in my journey were learning dialectical behavior therapy, constantly learning skills in managing a team of people (which is still a journey for me in which I am constantly learning skills!), and learning skills in validation to use with difficult clients when I am feeling burnt out. For those early on in their journey, I would say dive deep into training and find an impactful mentor and a supportive workplace where you can learn and make mistakes that can be corrected by someone who will offer constructive criticism and help you get better in a supportive environment, and prepare to work hard; nothing comes easy. If you want success, you need to work for it.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

Surprisingly, it’s a dialectic. The people most helpful in these areas have been those who have challenged, not believed in me, or even betrayed me the most, and also the people who have been the most loyal and stood by me and believed in me since day one. I think you need both to become successful. As I stated earlier, nothing comes easy. If everyone believes in you, you might sit back and not work as hard. If there are people who challenge you, let you down, or remind you that you need to prove to yourself that you can do the things you set out to do, you work even harder for success, or at least I do. I truly thank those people; without them, my business wouldn’t be where it is today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.socaldbt.com
• Instagram: dbtspecialistsla
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Image Credits

Annie Vovan Photography