Susan Vlajk
ABOUT ME
Susan E. Vlajk, ACSW, LCSW is a clinical social worker and co-founder of The Child and Youth Advocacy Center in Lewisburg, WV. She has had a thriving private psychotherapy practice in the heart of Lewisburg since 1996. In 1988, she received her MSW with honors from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She has practiced a Holistic Therapy model consistently since.
Susan has a deep appreciation for the children, adults and families with whom she works as they recover and heal. She enjoys teaching various mental health skills including resiliency, coping strategies, and emotional regulation. She specializes in working with trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, anxiety, and depression.
Susan has extensive training and experience in working with children and adults who have lived with physical and/or sexual abuse, family disruption and neglect. Using a Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral model, her focus is to help clients of all ages navigate these difficulties to go on and lead healthy and productive lives.
EXPERIENCE
• ACSW-Academy of Certified Social Workers (national)
• LCSW-Licensed Clinical Social Worker (state license)
• Affiliated with Child and Youth Advocacy Center and thoroughly trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Community College professor for over 10 years
• Provides various training and workshops throughout the region
• On-going Continuing Education
Billing
Most insurances are accepted, as is private pay. I use Hopewell Billing, LLC.
Client Reviews
“Compassion, energy, imagination, and full-tilt advocacy embody Susan Vlajk. Her many years of experience shine as her approach solidifies positive outcomes for children and adults.”
“I wish that everyone had access to a practioner like Susan. She provides evidence-based, trauma-focused therapy to child abuse victims and their non-offending family members. I can’t tell you how many survivors have told me that their work with Susan saved their lives and made their families whole again. Her education, experience, and skill make her one of the best mental health professionals in West Virginia. Susan takes exceptional care of her clients and I would trust her with anyone.”
Services
Trauma and Grief
These words have really garnered some attention in the past 10-15 years even though their history is ancient. Luckily there have been some real breakthroughs in the mental health field in helping people to navigate the effects. Utilizing various tools such as trauma focused cognitive behavioral means, expressive arts, physical and spiritual means have been found to be quite effective in healing traumatic experiences.
Behavioral HEalth
This is an aspect of our WHOLE being in the holistic model that often gets short shrift. The educational system does a great job in teaching children compliance and social behaviors. It is very rewarding to watch children (of all ages) to learn how to navigate their own internal struggles for how to behave in ways that benefits not only the individual but those around them. I find that one can not divorce this from physical, mental, spiritual, familial, and social well being.
Developmental Milestones
I love to share Eric Erikson, Carol Gilligan and others’ theories on how humans develop over their life cycle. It has proven to be very helpful in working with clients as they explore how trauma affected them at certain stages of their lives.