Susan Owens is a relationship and family counsellor and the founder of Central Coast Counselling, where she works with individuals, couples, teenagers, and families navigating some of the most difficult seasons of their lives.
Susan is known for her honest, direct, and deeply compassionate approach to counselling. Her clients often describe her as someone who creates a space where they feel safe enough to be vulnerable, while also being challenged to take accountability, communicate differently, and understand the deeper patterns driving conflict, hurt, and disconnection.
Susan holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Science, majoring in Counselling, and has been working as a counsellor since 2016. Over the years, she has built a strong reputation across the Central Coast for her work in relationship counselling, family dynamics, infidelity recovery, communication breakdowns, parenting challenges, blended family issues, emotional abuse, separation support, and rebuilding emotional connection. Her ability to balance empathy with honesty has led many clients to seek her support during times when relationships feel overwhelmed, stuck, or on the verge of breakdown.
Susan’s approach to counselling is shaped not only by professional training, but also by significant life experience. After losing her father at a young age, Susan was raised in an environment impacted by domestic violence and later experienced the realities of raising children while living in domestic violence herself. These experiences gave her a deep understanding of trauma, survival, emotional overwhelm, grief, and the long-term impact relationships can have on individuals and families.
As a mother of six children, including children with additional needs, Susan understands the complexities, pressures, and emotional exhaustion that many parents quietly carry behind closed doors. Alongside raising her family, she also worked as a teacher’s aide for over 10 years and spent years balancing the role of caregiver within her own family while supporting others professionally.
Her sessions focus on helping people feel heard, understood, and emotionally safe enough to begin having the conversations they have often avoided for years.
A large part of Susan’s work involves helping couples move away from blame, defensiveness, and emotional shutdown, and toward healthier communication, emotional awareness, validation, and accountability. She is particularly passionate about helping clients understand how childhood experiences, family systems, shame, grief, and attachment wounds can quietly shape adult relationships.
Susan’s counselling style is practical, relational, and emotionally grounded. Rather than simply “talking about problems,” she often uses real-life examples, role plays, and communication exercises to help clients understand each other differently and create meaningful change outside the counselling room.
Her work has been recognised within the community, including being named Small Business of the Year on the Central Coast. Susan is also a Level 4 Counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association.
Above all, Susan is passionate about helping people feel less alone in what they are facing. Whether supporting couples in crisis, families experiencing conflict, or individuals trying to rebuild themselves after pain or betrayal, her goal is to help clients move toward healthier relationships, stronger communication, and deeper emotional understanding.
