Training

Susan is available to provide training on the innovative Thriver Zone Motivational Model she has developed and successfully used with hundreds of survivors who have been abused (domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse) to help them move from victim to survivor to thriver.

Empower your Program or Practice in the Thriver Zone!

Susan’s training on her unique, groundbreaking work can empower your organization or practice by injecting exciting new ideas and concepts into your program, policies and service delivery. Come explore Susan’s Thriver Zone Motivational Model and her highly successful work with survivors helping them reclaim their lives after abuse. In the training, Susan can help you:

  • Identify emotional, social and financial barriers survivors face keeping them from moving beyond domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.
  • Learn her motivational techniques and interactive exercises that help survivors to become thrivers.
  • Explore strategies to promote post-traumatic growth of survivors that can awaken their creative potential and stabilize their lives emotionally, socially and financially so they won’t return to trauma or abuse.

Who should attend

If you are a victim advocate working in a domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse crisis intervention program,  prosecutor’s office, on a military base or in a tribal setting or work with survivors in a substance abuse treatment or inmate release program, Susan’s training can provide you with a fresh, viable approach to a critical “next-step” that victims and survivors can take to become thrivers and experience positive, productive growth after violence, abuse and trauma.

If you are a child welfare worker, life coach, social worker, counselor, therapist, clinician, healthcare worker or doctor, Susan’s training can give you new insights and strategies in your practice to help survivors and their families reach treatment goals more easily and hasten their journey from victim to survivor to thriver, reclaiming their lives.

Who can benefit

  • Anyone working with women who have been abused, traumatized and assaulted who would like to learn new motivational techniques, interactive exercises and tools to improve their skills in their practice or program.
  • Anyone conducting support or therapy groups for women who would like to consider adding a new curriculum or component to their program that incorporates Susan’s tools for helping survivors move beyond abuse and trauma.

What You Will Learn

Come explore Susan’s Thriver Zone Motivational Model set forth her award-winning workbooks, Entering the Thriver Zone: A Seven-Step Guide to Thriving After Abuse and Staying in the Thriver Zone: A Road Map to Manifest a Life of Power and Purpose.  Explore how to use Susan’s interactive exercises and easy-to-use worksheets with your clients individually, in a support or therapy group or build a component into your program as the “next-step” from survivor to thriver!  These motivational techniques have been developed over the last twenty years by Susan in her free My Avenging Angel Workshops™.

At half, full or multiple-day sessions, you’ll learn exercises from Susan’s Seven Steps to Thriving After Abuse on how to:  
  • Explore fairy tales to see the journey from victim to survivor to “thriver.”
  • Play in the “right brain” where intuition, creativity and passion lie.
  • Quiet the Inner Critic, the negative voice in your head that can sabotage progress forward.
  • Make contact with the “Happy Person Inside,” the part of you that has been untouched by all that has happened.
  • Vision a new life and a new future beyond violence abuse and trauma.
Discover Susan’s Road Map for the Journey to the Real You ™ that lays out the path for survivors to manifest their vision and discover where they might be stuck.  Finally, the Thriver Success Stories of seven women from Susan’s workshop program will share how her work has been “life-changing” in Living in the Thriver Zone: A Celebration of Living Well as the Best Revenge.   

Testimonials

"Throughout the past few years, I have sat through many resiliency workshops but your method for overcoming an abusive past and trauma is especially unique. I would like to use your healing processes with the victims that I work with. Furthermore, I purchased one of your books and I am working through it now."
B.K.
Workshop Participant at Kansas Victims Rights Conference
Since the murder of her niece Maggie, Susan has been an agent of positive change for survivors and offenders alike, strengthening those hurt and converting those who harm. Words can hurt but also transform and Susan’s work in the Thriver Zone shows you how.”
Charlene Smith
South African multi-award-winning journalist, authorized biographer of Nelson Mandela, author of Proud of Me: Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence and HIV
“Susan’s books offer faith, courage and dignity to women who have survived the destructive and selfish actions of abusive men. Susan’s message is ‘Don’t settle for anything less than a life that is better than ever.’ She knows that women can do it and by the time a woman has worked her way through these excellent guidebooks for healing, she will believe it, too.”
Lundy Bancroft
Author, Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men and Daily Wisdom for Why Does He Do That?
"Susan’s unique experience working with both victims and offenders alike and her strength-based approach to focusing on the goal of thriving makes her books an exceptional tool for survivors of abuse as well as professionals working with them so they can move forward into a more positive part of their lives."
Linda McMurray
LCSW, Domestic Violence Counselor
“Susan’s work and trainings are inspirational and motivational. Native women tell me that by focusing them on the goal of not being stuck in abuse, Susan gives them a choice to thrive, not just survive their experiences. They gain a sense of self-worth that has made a difference in their lives. We are truly blessed to have met Susan and been able to work with her.”
Sandra Toscano
Tribal Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Advocate
“As a social worker and therapist who works with women with depression and trauma histories that frequently include domestic violence, I have found Susan’s work to be an invaluable resource. I especially like the exercises Susan has developed that bolsters the hopes and dreams of my clients and help them realize that they can succeed if they know what they value and care about. Her books give them great hope for the future and connects them with Susan and her story in a very personal way.”
Kathy G. Novak
MSW, LCSW
“Susan’s books will touch a responsive chord in women who have been abused and those who advocate for them. Susan’s creativity, her inspirational workshops and her own personal journey make her books a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the empowerment of women.”
Alyce LaViolette
MS, MFT, Author, It Could Happen to Anyone: Why Battered Women Stay
“Susan begins with a rare insight – that what makes a battered woman is not what the abuser has done to her but what he has kept her from doing for herself – and then takes her readers on a jubilant journey of self-realization. On the way, Susan helps them remake their world and get back in touch with their power and possibility.”
Evan Stark
PhD, MSW, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University-Newark and Author of Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life
“Susan’s work is impressive. I use her books in my practice, helping abuse survivors, young or old, move beyond survivor to thriver. Her materials can help all who have suffered trau­ma. I love how Susan’s books incorporate a journey to healing without having my clients relive the trauma itself.”
Diana Barnes-Fox
MA, LMFT
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