Licensed to practice in Arizona and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in Anxiety, Trauma and PTSD, Dissociative Disorders and 5 more.
(she/her)
New to Grow
Lisa is the kind of open and approachable person everyone is immediately comfortable with. Her easygoing and genuine demeanor guide her approach to providing care - she is focused on helping you reach beyond your limits and achieve the health improvement goals you desire. With this thought in mind, Lisa uses techniques that are most likely to work in your specific case and in your best interest. The connectedness between physical, spiritual and mental health is important to Lisa, and is reflected in her whole-person approach to mental health therapy. Lisa may suggest referrals to other physical, spiritual or lifestyle improvement professionals in order to accomplish your overall goals. Don’t be surprised if your aching foot is the root cause of an emotional instability, or if a relationship breakthrough improves your physical stamina.
Your first session will be more about getting to know you and figuring out what is actually going on than immediately doing intensive trauma processing. Her approach is intentionally individualized rather than putting every client through the same treatment protocol. Lisa uses CBT initially to understand surface symptoms and identify the underlying issues contributing to them. So she may ask questions that connect your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships, and history. You'll discuss your history, but you don't have to tell your entire life story in one hour. She may ask about important relationships, significant experiences, previous therapy, current stressors, and patterns that have persisted over time. If something is particularly painful, you can say so. You don't have to disclose everything before you're ready.
Lisa wants to understand what brought you in, what you're struggling with now, and what you would like to be different. You don't need to have everything figured out beforehand. It's perfectly reasonable to say, “I know something isn't working, but I'm not really sure what's wrong.” Lisa creates a safe and supportive environment where you can reach your highest level of mental health. She is compassionate and non-judgmental - she will meet you where you are in life, and empower you to move beyond your current limits. With a mindful perspective of the whole person, Lisa offers mental health counseling for anxiety, trauma and lifestyle change. Each of these present a wide variety of challenges and symptoms - Lisa meets those challenges with you through a suitable therapy based on your specific goals and reception to different methods or techniques. You may work through Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS) or other Cognitive Counseling approaches to find what works for you.
Lisa is particularly well suited to someone who is functional on the outside but knows something underneath isn’t working - someone who may have been coping for years but is now ready to understand the deeper reasons behind their patterns, rather than just learning to manage symptoms. They're interested in understanding why. This is probably one of the strongest indicators that someone is a good fit for Lisa. They aren't looking for, “Give me three coping skills so I can get through this week.” They're more likely to ask: “Why do I keep doing this?” “Why do I react this way when I know I'm safe?” “Why can't I seem to move past this?” “I understand it intellectually. Why doesn't that change how I feel?”
Lisa likes to start with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to understand surface symptoms and identify the underlying issues contributing to them. Once a chronic or deeper issue is identified, she may incorporate additional approaches more suited to your specific situation and receptiveness to different therapies.
Lisa uses EMDR as a deeper trauma-processing approach to understand the underlying issue. EMDR helps identify distressing experiences or memories that continue to affect you in the present day and reduces the emotional intensity and impact of the memory.
IFS isn't about treating someone as if they have multiple personalities. Instead, it looks at the different “parts” of ourselves that develop in response to life experiences and that can influence how we think, feel, and behave. IFS gives Lisa a way to explore seemingly conflicting reactions rather than trying to eliminate one of them.
Traditional therapy can spend a lot of time identifying symptoms and problems. Positive Psychology adds another question, “What is already working in your life, and how can we build more of it?” For Lisa, that can mean identifying your existing strengths, abilities, relationships, values, accomplishments, and sources of meaning.