Rising Stars: Meet Susannah Horwitz of Golden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susannah Horwitz.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I often say my path into therapy started long before my career did — I grew up surrounded by both the healing and creative arts. My mom was a professional artist and art teacher, my dad a physician, and many of my other relatives also worked within the fields of medicine, education, and the arts. From an early age, I learned that creativity and care are deeply connected. I went to a performing arts school from fifth through twelfth grade, where my love for art, writing, music, and movement took root. Summers were spent at camp, in nature, and later leading others as a counselor — early experiences that showed me how powerful outdoor connection could be for growth and healing. When I was fifteen, a month-long Outward Bound trip in the North Cascades became a turning point; it showed me the power of nature and self-discovery in a way that still shapes my work today.

Before becoming a therapist, I worked as an expressive arts educator and counselor in community arts and outdoor programs for youth. Those years taught me that healing doesn’t only happen sitting in a chair — it unfolds through movement, art, nature, play, rest, and relationship. After more than a decade of working for various organizations as an employee, I became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts and opened my private practice in 2010. And then, after moving to Colorado in 2014, I also became a Licensed Professional Counselor here and continued to work with clients online (before it became mainstream!) in Massachusetts. I gradually found my way toward running my own therapy business and offering therapy in the ways that I learned were most beneficial: connecting with and utilizing creative arts, the outdoors, and other evidenced based trauma healing modalities like EMDR and IFS-informed parts work to help clients heal and thrive. Over the years, my work has expanded to include psychedelic integration. And now, as a Licensed Natural Medicine Facilitator in Colorado — I am offering legal psilocybin-assisted therapy for people ages 21+. Becoming a psychedelic-assisted therapist is an evolution that feels like a natural continuation of everything I’ve learned from my personal and professional life thus far about deep, embodied healing.

Each step of my journey has been guided by relationship and listening — to my intuition, my body, and the rhythms of the natural world — and allowing that listening to shape how I continue to grow as a therapist and person.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Like many therapists and entrepreneurs, I’ve had to unlearn the idea that success means pushing through exhaustion. Early in my career, while working in the nonprofit arts world, I believed that helping others required self-sacrifice — long hours, low pay, and constant availability. After becoming a mother, my body and spirit made it clear that I couldn’t sustain that way of working if I wanted to show up fully for my family or for my clients. That realization led me to take a leap and open my own private practice — creating a structure that allowed for more balance, authenticity, and creativity in how I worked.

Four years later, my family and I made another leap — moving from Massachusetts to Colorado with no jobs lined up, no solid place to live yet, and a 20-month-old child. Even with several years of private practice experience, it took nearly two years to rebuild my practice in a new state where I didn’t know anyone. As an introvert, I found myself stretching far outside my comfort zone — networking constantly, saying yes to unfamiliar opportunities, and learning through direct experience. I worked with adults with physical and developmental disabilities, non-speaking autistic adults, suicidal youth through the Second Wind Fund, and even began regularly taking therapy sessions outdoors — something that would eventually become one of the most meaningful parts of my work.

Those seasons of transition taught me that resilience, creativity, and adaptability are muscles that get stronger each time I stretch them. I draw on those lessons often even now — whether I’m shifting my focus to serve a new niche, updating my fees, or evolving my practice structure to fit this stage of my life as a 50-year-old mom of a middle schooler. The boundaries and balance I once thought might limit me have become the very foundation that allows my work — and my clients — to thrive.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapist, EMDR Certified Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Level II (CCTP-II), and Certified Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Provider, licensed in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida. I am also a Licensed Natural Medicine (Psilocybin) Facilitator in Colorado.

My work centers on helping caregivers — especially therapists, medical professionals, and neurodivergent parents of neurodivergent tweens and teens — heal from trauma, anxiety and panic, grief and loss, burnout, and the weight of working so hard to be “the strong one” for everyone else. Many of my clients are thoughtful, sensitive, creative people who’ve spent their lives learning to mask or overachieve in order to “fit” into systems that were never designed with them in mind. Beneath the surface of being competent and capable, they often carry exhaustion, self-doubt, and a quiet longing to be their full, authentic selves — to let their weird, wonderful parts come out to play again.

What sets my work apart is the depth of integration — not just using nature or the arts as a backdrop, but bringing them into the core of the healing process. In my sessions, art-making and nature are woven together as active co-therapists. We might use natural materials to create art, bring art supplies into outdoor sessions, or find symbolic representations of a client’s “parts” in the landscape to engage in imaginative dialogue or journaling. These experiential methods help clients externalize complex emotions, allowing them to safely interact with and transform the parts of themselves that have been carrying pain, protection, or wisdom. Nature enhances the creative process, and the arts deepen our connection with nature — together, they invite an embodied, playful, and profound way of healing.

I’m most proud of the ways my clients learn to give themselves permission to rest and play after years of feeling held back from these foundational elements of a healthy life. I continue to enjoy witnessing clients re-discover their vitality — the sparks of creativity, fun, hope, and purpose that often get buried under years of responsibility.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I’ve learned that healing — for both therapist and client — happens in the living, imperfect process of relationship — through the moments of rupture, repair, and reconnection that build real trust over time. The longer I do this work, the more I see how much we all need spaciousness, curiosity, and permission to not have it all figured out. I’ve learned that slowing down is not a weakness — it’s a radical act of self-trust. My work, my health, and my joy all expand when I move at a pace that honors my nervous system and my values.

I’ve also learned that many of us, especially those who have spent years learning to be “good rule followers” in order to fit in, carry parts of ourselves that feel unseen or misunderstood. Healing requires creating space for those authentic, “weird” parts to show up — to be witnessed, named, and engaged in ways that feel safe and playful. Integrating creativity, the arts, and nature provides a tangible way for these parts to be explored and honored.

And perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned that nature is the best teacher — and that its lessons mirror our own inner wisdom. Both remind me that growth is not linear; it’s cyclical, seasonal, and always inviting us to begin again.

Pricing:

• Individual Therapy: $450 for 90 min sessions
• EMDR Therapy Intensives: $1800 for half-day & $2700 for full day packages
• Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (Individual and Group): $2000-4000 per package, dependent on licensed healing center rates
• Therapist & Wellness Professional Business Consultation and Coaching: $100 for 30 min; $200 for 60 min

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.susannahhorwitz.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannah-horwitz-2911998b
• Other: For therapists and wellness professionals seeking consultation and coaching: https://www.wellconnectedtherapist.com

Image Credits
Nathan Morgan/Morgan Visual Productions
Sara Hazard/Passion House Media