Sue Shrinkle-Emmons, LMFT

Recipient of the Best of Encinitas Award for 2023 & 2024 in the category of Mental Health

**Promoting Healing & Lifelong Growth**

Integrative Therapy for Women in CA, CO, & HI

If you've found your way here, chances are you've been carrying more than most people realize. Maybe you're navigating the physical and emotional toll of endometriosis, the uncertainty and heartbreak of infertility, or the complicated journey of trying to build a family. Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed by the many expectations placed on women: to care for others, succeed professionally, maintain relationships, manage the invisible mental load, and somehow keep it all together. Years of chronic pain, medical appointments, fertility treatments, difficult reproductive experiences, and the pressures of everyday life can leave you feeling exhausted, anxious, depressed, or even traumatized. You may feel disconnected from your body, overwhelmed by uncertainty, or like you've lost parts of yourself along the way.

I believe you deserve a space where all of that can be understood. A place where you don't have to explain why it's so hard, minimize what you're feeling, or hold everything together. Together, we can begin to process the grief, anxiety, depression, and trauma that can accompany these experiences, reconnect with yourself and your body, and build the emotional resilience to navigate whatever comes next.

You don't have to figure it all out alone. I'd love to connect and explore how therapy can help you feel more supported, grounded, and at home in yourself again.

Therapy should feel like talking to someone who is genuinely in your corner. Someone curious about your inner world, deeply empathetic, and fully committed to understanding you, not just your symptoms or your story on paper.

If we work together, you'll find that I bring warmth and even laughter into the room, because real connection - the kind that actually heals - grows best in an atmosphere of ease and genuine care. Some of the most meaningful moments in therapy happen when it stops feeling clinical and starts feeling human. What matters most to me is that you leave each session feeling a little more like yourself: more settled, more seen, more connected to who you actually are beneath all the noise.

I'm not just here to guide you through a process. I'm here to genuinely know you. And I can't wait to get started.

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AREAS OF FOCUS

Endometriosis is far more than a reproductive condition; it's a whole-body, chronic illness that quietly reshapes your energy, your relationships, and your sense of self. For many, it also intersects with the path to building a family, whether that means navigating infertility, IUI, IVF, or donor egg cycles, or carrying the grief of miscarriage or loss. Our work together will honor all of that. We'll move at your pace, regulate a nervous system that's been in survival mode, and create space for the grief that comes with chronic pain, medical decisions, and a future that may look different than you'd planned.

EMDR is an evidence-based therapy designed to help you process what hasn't fully healed yet. Whether you're carrying unresolved distress, anxiety, or experiences that still feel alive in your body, EMDR works with your nervous system to gently reduce their grip, leaving you with greater resilience and a stronger, more grounded sense of who you are.

Your mind and body are always in conversation, and true healing happens when we listen to both. This integrative approach looks at how your physical health, nervous system, and lived experience all shape the way you feel emotionally. So if you're navigating anxiety, depression, grief, or a major life transition, we won't just explore what's happening in your mind. We'll look at the whole picture, because what you're carrying is real, and it lives in your body too.

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Brainspotting is a powerful, body-based therapy that works beneath the level of conscious thought. By locating specific eye positions that correspond to where you hold unprocessed pain, trauma, or stress in your nervous system, we're able to access and release what talk therapy alone sometimes can't reach. It's a gentle yet profound way to help your brain and body finally let go, and find their way back to ease.

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The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidence-based listening therapy that uses specially filtered music to help regulate your nervous system from the inside out. If sounds feel overwhelming, social connection feels effortful, or your body just can't seem to settle, SSP works gently and non-invasively to shift your autonomic state, making it easier to feel safe, present, and open to the world around you.

Living with a chronic illness asks so much of you. It can quietly reshape your sense of identity, your relationships, and your vision of the future. Our work together will honor all of that. We'll move at your pace, deepen your understanding of your own experience, and create space for the grief that comes with navigating a life that may look different than you'd planned, whether that's a new diagnosis or a loss that keeps unfolding over time.

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Maybe you're running on empty, overextended, and overwhelmed by the expectations placed on you, wondering when you stopped feeling like yourself. Perhaps you're navigating the emotional weight of endometriosis, infertility, or other health challenges, working through anxiety, depression, or trauma connected to experiences that have changed your relationship with your body and your sense of self. Maybe the boundaries that once felt manageable have blurred, or you've spent so much time caring for others, managing responsibilities, and getting through difficult seasons that your own needs have fallen to the bottom of the list.

Wherever you're starting from, therapy offers a place to slow down, feel understood, and find your way back to yourself. Together, we'll make space for the experiences you've been carrying, get clear on what matters to you, practice genuine self-compassion, and build the tools to show up more fully in your life without constantly running on fumes. You deserve more than just getting through the day. Joy, connection, and a sense of ease are still within reach. Let's find your way back to them.

How Can I Support You?

Finding a therapist can be overwhelming and emotional. How I can support you on your journey?

Schedule your free phone Consultation