Welcome
Start here, to learn about my approach to this work. While I am not currently accepting new patients, I am developing community events that are designed for healing connection. To be added to my email list and notified of wait list times, or to learn about Queer Council, retreat and nature based offerings, please sign up here.
May you be well, may you be courageous, may you live fully, and deeply, into this life.
Bringing sacred attention to those I encounter in my life, is my work in the world. Equipped with both my professional training, and my own personal journey, I am prepared to help you in caring for yourself, and those you love.
Every therapist has a unique blend of skills, training, and orientation to the world. Look for a therapist that you feel you can talk to, who seems comparable, or someone, with whom, you might relate well. I have extensive clinical experience and training in addressing the many ways that psychic pain erupts into symptoms such as panic disorder, anxiety, depression, PTSD, compulsive behaviors such as emotional eating and spending, and dissociative states. I utilize tools for reducing pain such as : CBT, Somatic Experience, Psychodrama, Expressive Arts therapies, Sand Tray, Active Imagination, and Dream work. I have extensive experience in working successfully with problems of personality organization that disrupt functioning in personal and professional spheres.
Having studied widely and deeply in the field of psychology, for 30 years, I am prepared to utilize a wide range tools and a highly personalized approach to helping you with your particular pain. My commitment to my own awakening and consciousness is a deep part of how I will meet you in this moment.
I am here to assist you in your healing journey as I learn, along side you, more about this wild life that we have inherited.
Lisa
Tenants of My Work
Pain is a Teacher.
Symptoms are signals. Together, we can decipher them, comprehend their meaning, and make necessary changes in thinking, feeling, and relating, that will reduce pain. I have extensive clinical experience and training in addressing the many ways that psychic pain erupts into symptoms such as panic disorder, anxiety, depression, PTSD, compulsive behaviors such as emotional eating and spending, and dissociative states. I utilize tools for reducing pain such as : CBT, Somatic Experience, Psychodrama, Expressive Arts therapies, Sand Tray, Active Imagination, and Dream work. I have extensive experience in working successfully with problems of personality organization that disrupt functioning in personal and professional spheres.
When faced with the eruption of a deep aspect of self that needs attention, we are faced with an opportunity, and pain is the signal. This pain can be an episode of depression, insomnia, nightmares. This pain could be your longing to explore your gender identity, your sexuality. It could be the despair of a miserable relationship, or an escalating crisis with your child.
Depth is required for real growth.
“I’d rather be whole than good” – Carl Jung
My thinking and theoretical orientation is rooted in a Psychodynamic Depth Perspective. Depth Psychotherapy is the rooted in an understanding that our self knowledge and awareness is a layered and diverse topography, that is not fully available to us at a conscious level. To consider one’s problems with living, one’s symptoms, or personal patterns that require attention because they undermine our mental health, our relationships, our ways of navigating the world effectively; is to look with more depth, beneath the surface of our problems. What we find there, can be a deeper understanding of who we are, why we are hurting, and what will truly, liberate us.
Our relationship to our selves is paramount.
I utilize a combination of therapeutic modalities to relieve suffering from symptoms, while addressing underlying unconscious psychological pain that perpetuates these patterns. I am devoted to the work of addressing the underlying roots of psychic pain, in order to insure long term benefit from psychotherapy, not simply symptom relief. Learning how to relate to our own selves is an essential skill for navigating our lives, and for relating to others.
Therapeutic Change is co-created.
The change that you seek in your life, will not come from outside of you. It will come from within you, through the work of attention. I facilitate this work by committing to listening deeply to you, with respect, and regard for your own sovereignty, self knowledge, and deep giftedness. This mutual commitment to presence, honesty, authenticity, is in my experience, the source of transformation.
Mental Health is Inextricably Linked to Justice
Training in Social Ecology taught me that our personal problems of living and relating are situated in our social context. Our social location, such as our race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religious traditions, immigration status, age, and level of personal ability have impact upon our self understanding, and our vulnerability to mental health challenges. If we are subjected to racism, sexism, heteronormativity, ability biases, agism, etc. our mental health can be impacted. When we utilize a social justice lens in psychotherapy, we frame our self understanding, and our challenges, in the context of these factors that are outside of our choosing, and we de-construct the idea that our mental health is only a function of our personal strength or will.
My Education & Training
For more information about these offerings, or to be added to my online newsletter:
| lmaurelmft@gmail.com