Susan Anderson, LCSW is the American author of The Journey from Abandonment to Healing, a self-help book about the pain of relationship breakups.
Anderson developed her ideas after her husband of eighteen years left her for another woman.
[2] In her book, Anderson contends that the grief of being spurned in a romantic relationship can create a trauma powerful enough "to implant an emotional drain deep within the self that if left unresolved, leeches self-esteem and creates self sabotage".
[3] Anderson adapts the five phases of grief identified in the Kübler-Ross model to relationship break-ups [4] reshaping them as: Shattering, Withdrawal, Internalizing, Rage and Lifting.
She has a Masters of Liberal Studies (Stony Brook University, 1974), a Masters of Social Work (Stony Brook University, 1983), is a credentialed alcoholism and substance abuse counselor,[6] and a member of the National Association of Social Workers.