Susan Chudzik-Sipos is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the mental health field for 25 years.  She started her career as hospital volunteer on the psychiatric floor and a crisis worker with the Canadian Mental Health Association. Her desire to learn and compassion for individuals struggling with mental health issues lead her ultimately to become a Registered Clinical Psychologist.

 

Today, Susan provides psychological services to adults, with a primary focus on First Responders. Her scope of practice focuses on assessment and treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Compassion Fatigue, and Burn out with First Responders. However, she also has extensive experience working with individuals who struggle with mood and anxiety disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She has completed specialized training in the area of Eating Disorders and Substance Use Disorders.

 

Susan is an experienced provider of empirically validated treatments. Her primary basis is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) framework, though she also provides Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), and well as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), depending on need.

 

Susan is grateful to have had the opportunity to gain valuable experience over the years working with First Responders including police, 911 Dispatchers, Fire Fighters, Correction Officers, Paramedics, Nurses, and military. She offers an approach that combines her academic training with years of clinical experience working first hand with this population. Combined, she has a unique appreciation and compassion for the challenges that First Responders face working in today’s climate.

 

Susan was trained and worked at St. Joseph’s Healthcare from 2000-2018 in the Mood Disorders Program and the Anxiety Treatment & Research Centre. Her role was to provide assessment and therapy to individuals with comorbid diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders. She participated in the development of many of the treatment protocols that they continue to use today.

 

In addition, Susan is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. She was the Chair of the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Studies area in the Clinical Behavioural Sciences Department at McMaster (2002-2012). She has provided supervision and training to a range of students including: working professionals, graduate students, psychiatry residents, psychology interns and psychologists under supervised practice completing their registration with the college, and in the past psychotherapy students. 

 

She is a member of the Canadian Psychological Association, Ontario Psychological Association, Canadian Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapies. She is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (CACBT) and she has completed specialized training working with First Responders and Compassion Fatigue. She has completed specialized training, receiving her Trauma Certificate: Trauma Counselling for Front-Line Workers, Cognitive Processing Therapy Individual and Conjoint, and Compassion Fatigue Training Certification.

 

Susan has completed numerous training workshops in the area of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as well as invited talks in the area of Compassion Fatigue and Post traumatic Stress Disorder for police and fire services.