About Therapy with Me
We Need a Bright Mirror
We are born needing loving caregivers to mirror who we are back to us.
Someone to show you who you are: your unshakeable goodness, your gifts, and how much you matter.
Sometimes, the mirror is blurry. We don’t get a clear reflection back, leaving us unsure.
Sometimes, it gets flipped around, and you end up being the one who has to mirror.
Sometimes, it’s painful to look into the mirror. What is reflected back hurts.
Sometimes, it breaks, and we spend our lives handing shards of our reflection to others, hoping they can help us put ourselves back together.
A Chapel Without the Hard Pews
My therapy office is a little chapel for you to take a break from the struggle.
First, I’ll introduce myself.
It might take a little time before you feel trust between us, and that’s completely fine.
If you’re a planner, we’ll map out what you want and how you’d like to get there.
I’ll ask you about the experiences you’ve had in your life that brought you here to therapy.
While we all want to live deeply and suck the marrow out of life, by the time most people come to me, much of life has sucked the marrow out of them instead.
There’s often pain, confusion, and dread that started piling up around the edges in childhood. We’ll start sorting through it and exploring how it might be impacting you in your day-to-day.
What You’ll Walk Out With
You’ll leave feeling lighter and breathing deeper.
You’ll feel grateful to yourself that you took the step.
There’s often a strange ease to it, a quiet surprise at how readily the things sitting on your mind came out, and we can talk about that too.
There’s a particular relief in knowing I’ve got your back, that I’m still thinking about what you told me after you leave, and that your experiences are safe with me, held with reverence and respect.
After a while, my clients describe something different.
More spontaneous joy. A sense that they belong with the people in their lives. More inspiration and creativity flowing in from the world.
The kind of thing one client put plainly: this is the most cared for I’ve ever felt.
About Suzette Cook, LCSW
In one of my own first therapy sessions, a therapist told my dad, in front of my six siblings and a poor unsuspecting boyfriend visiting from college, “You’re not listening.” And then, “You’re still not listening.”
A long, long, tense silence followed.
I had never seen anyone stop him in his tracks. Someone was on my side, could see what I had experienced for so long. For a moment, I wasn’t alone, even though I didn’t realize how alone I had been. In rooms like this, I learned that I mattered.
I believe we heal in relationships when we are with others who are truly present. My guiding values are radical nonjudgment, a reverence for inner knowing, and jeong.
Jeong is a Korean concept representing a deep, unspoken bond, loyalty, and affectionate attachment that develops between strangers over time. It was also my grandmother’s name. She was a true embodiment of jeong in her relentless, lifelong commitment to her community. My practice is dedicated to her.
I received my Master’s in Social Work from the Silver School at NYU and specialized in adolescent mental health. I have ten years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families in settings ranging from unhoused parents and children with the Bridging the Gap program at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health (OCMH) to higher levels of care at the Renfrew Center of New York and higher levels of care for eating disorders to inpatient and outpatient settings.
I’m a proud member of the Kintsugi Therapist Collective, a collective of queer therapists dedicated to embodied and liberatory practices of care.
I completed a fellowship with the Erika Malm Collective, where I studied couples therapy, eating disorders, and psychedelic medicine. I have received advanced training in EFT, EFFT, AEDP, EMDR, and IFS. I regularly receive expert consultation as well as participate in training upcoming therapists in EFT couples therapy and eating disorders from leading thought leaders and academics in our field.
In my free time, I’m raising two teenagers and a preteen, trialing my tight five, and talking to strangers.
As a biracial Korean American queer provider, I am dedicated to cultural sensitivity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
Let’s Put the Mirror Back Together
Over time, you’ll notice that your sturdiest self-image is coming together. You’ll feel more interpersonal ease as well as ease with yourself and in your body.
A quiet confidence will grow: you’ll have clarity about who you are and what you feel, with the confidence to act when you need to. Inner knowing, a deep compassion for yourself, and an expansive perspective will grow.
You might say what one of my patients said to me recently: “Despite everything I’m complaining about today, I really am becoming my best self.”
When we’re done, that mirror will be stronger than ever, and when you look at yourself, you’ll see the truest, fullest self you were intended to be.
If that’s the work you’re ready for, call me at (516) 362-1048 to set up a free 20-minute consultation.
Come as you are, shards and all. We’ll hold them up to the light together.
