Paul Sussman, Ph.D.,R.Psych.(AB),L.Psych.(GA)

Paul Sussman View Specialties

Dr. Paul S. Sussman


 
See Important Update on COVID-19 Below.  Therapy Mainly as Usual, and So Important!
 Licensed psychologist in Alberta and Georgia, clinical hypno-behavioral therapist, master facilitator and leader in the integrative breath therapy community,    Dr. Paul S. Sussman is a well-known Edmonton personality.  He blends the intensity of a loving, dedicated healer with a strong background in academic psychology.  He holds the Ph.D. in psychology from Carleton University.  He has known hardship, social marginalization, and is no stranger to stigma.  His life story is one of transcendence.

I am no-teacher no-healer no-doctor no-therapist.  I am Paul.

I have no-philosophy.  I make right action my philosophy.
I have no-script. I make right speech my script.
I have no-specialization.  I make helping this person here-now my specialization.
I use no-labels.  I make intuitive knowing my label.
I have no-status.  I make beginner's mind my status.
If I am successful in practicing unknowing, instead of diagnose-treat-cure
the model for my Heart-Centered practice becomes connect-interact-become.
This transcends the medical model's necessity for diagnosing or labeling either my client or myself. ...

"There is no reality and it wouldn't matter if there were.  All that exists are various points of view.  There are no rules.  All you have to do is inherit the consequences of your choices. ...

"Healing is a natural consequence of wounding.  When obstacles to growth are removed, people naturally grow beyond any fruitless impact of trauma. ...

"All healing is essentially the release from fear. ...

"I have the world's best education.  I sit and listen every day to people speaking of the topic about which they are the world's foremost expert: themselves. Most of what I know about helping others I learned from listening to my clients. ...

"Experience convinces me that my job as a therapist is to hold a space so special, so safe, and so sacred that people can say things they don’t even dare say out loud to themselves (far less to others) in ordinary space.  Extraordinary phenomena happen in extraordinary space: Healings, miracles, magic and the like.  All effective psychotherapy modalities create similar extraordinary spaces. ...

"Good psychotherapy and unexplained successful interventions take place only in extraordinary and sacred spaces.  These places store good energy; they help those who enter there to feel in harmony and to release the causes of suffering.  Therapists invite clients to join them there in open relatedness.  These spaces are not cures; rather, they create opportunities for healing.  They help clients to find their right path, to change and grow; they touch the body, the soul, the mind and the spirit; they connect the therapist and the client.  They connect to mother earth and to the universe; they help clients to develop trust, to understand they are not alone and can move forward on the right path together with the therapist; they give an active role to the healer and the client alike.  Extraordinary spaces encourage exploration and release from fear.  In extraordinary space, people can risk losing control, and may come to be at peace.  Hidden resources, invisible and essential for healing are discovered through compassion, intuition and bonding.  Healing is the key product of the elements found in extraordinary space."


At Sussman Psychological, Dr. Sussman holds an extraordinary space where obstacles to growth are removed and clients can deal with issues in complete safety and privacy.  In extraordinary spaces, extraordinary phenomena arise and extraordinary outcomes ensue.
 
More information is available at sussmanpsychological.com.  The Facebook page is Sussman Psychological Consulting.  A Google business listing also exists, but as it is more limited in the maximum length of posts, it is less informative, less well-maintained, and the other sites are preferred.  
 
Psychotherapy in the Time of COVID-19: Update III-31-2020

In Alberta the government hasn't been entirely clear about whether psychology is an essential service. Fortunately, the limits they place on meeting apply to clinics in buildings that are open to the public. As Sussman Psychological is located in a private space, apparently the government's dicta don't apply...at least, so far. However, the situation brings to mind an issue that has long been on my mind. It is this: If there is a philosophical direct opposite of a psychologist, it'd be a lawyer. So many lawyers in politics. To say the least, I am resistant to the notion that politicians have the capacity to evaluate whether or not psychological services are necessary. But, that's just me; and anyway, I have more important things to say.

Therapy conducted in virtual space works. I say this from what I have learned using it over the past 5-10 years. This is the first time a pandemic has created the need to meet in virtual space; usually the issue is geographic. I am licensed in Georgia and Registered in Alberta to practice psychology. I have met in virtual space with people in other provinces and states. My preference overall is for face to face meetings, however, that isn't always possible and virtual space is a powerful and useful alternative. Every client I have met with in virtual space has indicated that it does work just fine.

So, the basic considerations regarding whether we risk face to face contact remain the same as always: If either of us has been out of the the country, a 14 day quarantine is absolutely necessary and we cannot do face to face work while in quarantine. If either of us has the sense it would be best not to meet face to face, then we do well to act in accord with that felt sense. And of course if either of us has been in contact with anyone who has symptoms of a cold or flu or COVID-19 and/or if we ourselves have such symptoms, we must not meet face to face and we have to be honest with one another about this.

People are gregarious. We need one another. Isolation is a stressor and a destabilizing force. During this time I have actually made contact with and initiated a therapeutic process with new clients who expressed satisfaction with the way virtual space works.

Whatever you do, avoid concluding that you cannot reach out to a therapist now. Apt psychologists will generally be able to meet at a distance just as surely as they can meet face to face where conditions support doing so.

I for one would love to receive your call. 780.424.5592. 
 
 

Dr. Paul Sussman Reaches

Edmonton AB
Sherwood Park AB

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