Suzanne R. Engelman, Ph.D., is a Psychologist offering individual adult therapy for stress management, coping with medical illness, health related challenges, death and dying, grief and bereavement, anxiety, depression, bio-feedback, pain-management, animal assisted therapy, individual and couple's therapy.
Depression
The emotional and spiritual aspects of medical problems such as cancer, high blood pressure, recurrent abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, bodily tension, Tension Myostitis Syndrome (TMS), fibromyalgia, and CRPS.
Stress—both home and work related
Grief, loss, bereavement
Life-threatening illness
Life transitions-birth, growing old, dying; End of life bed-side assistance
Cultivating greater meaning in life
Relationship, dating and intimacy issues
Dream analysis
Unresolved issues from your childhood
Life-style changes to cope with illness
I offer a safe, inviting and respectful space for individuals, couples and families to explore their current issues and problems. I consider you the expert about your life and I am a consultant in helping you explore meanings, behaviors, and obtain answers to your questions.
When you or a loved one are experiencing the stress of life--be it work or home; or the stress of your own medical problems or those of a loved one who may be approaching the end of life, it can be helpful to work with someone like myself.
I have advanced training in stress management tools; bio-feedback; pain management strategies; and death, dying and bereavement in addition to mind/body strategies including diaphragmatic breathing. Care-giver stress and relationship stress can also be addressed in our work. I conduct my sessions with the assistance of my very cute Pet Partners trained therapy dogs, Lizzy, a small white bischon, and CJ, a standard poodle.
I am a member of the medical staff's of St Joseph Hospital in Orange, and Mission Hospital and Mission Laguna Hospital in South Orange County. I offer most of my services via telehealth.
New patients should start with my For Patients page on this website.
Articles by Suzanne R. Engelman, Ph.D, BCB, FT
(Please note: due to transfer of some articles from pdf to OCR format, discrepancies may appear in texts or graphs reproduced below)
Spirituality in the End of Life: Other States of Consciousness
Other States of Consciousness --End of Life Dreams, Death Bed Visions, and Terminal Lucidity are all spiritual doorways into self-transcendence, i.e. to our being with an essence, beyond the separateness of the ego we know from day-to-day living.
Read More
Animal-Assisted Interventions with Those Who Are Traumatized
This article focuses on the integrative and complementary healing approach of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) with those who are traumatized. Since conventional treatment methods of trauma-focused psychotherapy and/or medications often are not effective, an alternative modality called AAI is presented. Centered on the whole-person approach to health, the often-overlooked spiritual dimension as experienced through AAI is elucidated through the important human-animal bond. Read More (PDF)
Psychologists in Primary Care
The American health care system is undergoing tremendous transformation. The great value of primary care lies in its potential to comprehensively treat the whole person. Read More
Stress, Mind-Body Interventions and Bio-Feedback, and Pain
We all experience stress in our day to day lives, sometimes moment by moment. Stress cannot be stopped, but what can be changed are our bodily and emotional responses to stress. Read More