Hello
The President's Volunteer Service Award
Recipient of
I’m Susan Zinn, The Heart Therapist, helping you move beyond survival into a life that feels safe, connected, and fully alive.
Official Bio
Susan Zinn (LPCC, LMHC, NCC), The Heart Therapist™, is a licensed psychotherapist, national clinical counselor, behavioral researcher, and certified trauma and eating disorder specialist. As the founder of Westside Counseling Center, Susan helps people heal from trauma and transform their lives through a practice centered on evidence-based psychotherapy, nervous system regulation, and accessing the intelligence of the heart.
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Her work integrates trauma therapy, interoception, heart-brain signaling, and neurocardiology, with a particular focus on the functional freeze response that often goes unnoticed.
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A nationally recognized speaker and media spokesperson, Susan received the President's Volunteer Service Award and was recognized by Los Angeles Times Studios through its Inspirational Women Forum and Leadership Awards. Her work has been featured in The Today Show, Forbes Magazine, People, The Huffington Post, The New York Post, and Women's Health, and she appears regularly on iHeartRadio, BBC TalkRadio, and other media outlets.
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Susan received her Master of Arts in Mental Health and Wellness Counseling from New York University. Her graduate research focused on what drives us toward post-traumatic growth, and she is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Southern California. As a mental health advocate, Susan volunteered as an emergency room sexual assault advocate at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City, trained in women's health at Planned Parenthood, championed teens in foster care as a volunteer therapist with the Casa Therapy Program, and supported economically disadvantaged individuals to develop crucial life skills at the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles.
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As part of the health and wellness community for two decades, Susan serves on the executive board of UCLA's Friends of Semel Institute and the Los Angeles council for Syracuse University. She has partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and contributed to socially conscious initiatives, including Reject All Tobacco and the Partnership for Healthier Mississippi. Her work helps audiences understand how stress physiology shapes behavior, and how evidence-based tools can support sustainable resilience and change. She has been an invited speaker at a number of conferences and speaks to academic, healthcare, government, and business audiences, providing robust experience and evidence-based science. Susan resides in Los Angeles, and her most important job is being a mom to her teenagers and two dogs.
For media and speaking inquiries, please use the contact page.
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My personal story
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After having three heart surgeries at a relatively young age, I had an epiphany.
I had just undergone my third 17-hour heart surgery, and it was clear something needed to change. My doctors had treated my heart, but I needed to change the chronic stress and survival patterns shaping my life.
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After witnessing 9/11 firsthand, I carried unresolved traumatic stress for years. I was overworked, struggling with my boundaries, and I was in an unhappy relationship. I looked functional on the outside, but inside, I felt disconnected.
Later, I came to understand that I wasn't just overwhelmed; I was living in a high-functioning survival state, often referred to as functional freeze, where you can look outwardly capable while feeling inwardly disconnected or shut down. That insight gave language to what I had been living in my body.
Facing the possibility of ongoing heart issues, I realized that life isn't just about surviving or even thriving, but about feeling fully alive. Even in the face of challenges, trauma, or adversity, it is possible to shift how we experience ourselves day to day.
Through that process, I was drawn to a different way of understanding the body, one that went beyond the traditional approaches I had been trained in as a trauma therapist. Despite years of clinical work, I could see there was a layer we weren’t fully accessing. I began exploring neurocardiology and interoception, and how the heart and brain communicate to shape emotional experience, regulation, and a sense of internal safety. For the first time, I wasn’t just managing symptoms; I was learning how to work with my body in a way that created real and lasting change.
Today, my work reflects that integration. I work with high-achieving individuals who feel stuck in survival despite outward success, helping them regulate their nervous system, reconnect with themselves, and feel more grounded, connected, and fully alive.
My work is grounded in four core beliefs:
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Many people have been shaped by stress or trauma, even when life looks successful outside.
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Transitions create the opportunity for meaningful change.
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Joy is a practice, built through small, consistent shifts.
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When we work with the heart and nervous system, the mind can finally soften.
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Trauma happens to each of us
Trauma can occur from experiencing both catastrophic events and events that are considered more benign, like failing a test or a heartbreak. Our nervous system does not know the difference. The effects of trauma on the body feels exactly the same regardless of what occurred. Trauma is something that happened to us- it’s not us.
Transformation is important
Transformation is a vital stage of growth, and we have to become uncomfortable with the liminal space, the in-between of it, knowing there will always be the other side if we embrace it. For transformation to occur, we must fall forward rather than bounce back, desiring the certainty of becoming our old selves.
Our energy can be directed
We are responsible for our own emotions. We can choose how we want to feel in life every day. Science shows that 32-40% of our happiness is genetics, but the rest is up to us. When we practice choosing joy every day, we can live a happier life no matter what has happened in our past.
Healing starts with our heart
When we live our life from our hearts, everything makes sense. With as many as 60k thoughts a day, it can feel impossible to change them, like grabbing air. Yet, we can always feel our heartbeat, which can ground us in the present. When the heart and body are calm, it helps to regulate our emotions and start us on our healing journey.