Family Therapy in Santa Cruz, CA

Do you want to stop repeating unhealthy patterns and live a life that brings you an increased sense of joy, calm and health? We can work together to address past traumas, decrease your feelings of anxiety and/or sadness, change addictive habits and improve your relationships. My approach is collaborative, experiential, emotionally focused, person-centered and sometimes even fun. I have been a marriage and family therapist for over20 years and have success in providing compassionate and supportive therapy. The basis of my therapeutic approach is to create a safe environment based on trust and respect.

Sometimes life presents us with difficult, painful, or even seemingly unbearable challenges. Sometimes we, ourselves, can be a source of the pain and challenges. Either way, we must be able to access our resources -- inner and outer -- to cope with the pain, the imbalance, the overwhelm, the stuckness ... and, ultimately, to learn, heal, and grow from our experiences..... My job is to help you best utilize resources you already have and to offer you more tools to help you change undesirable patterns in yourself and your life.

I like to work with people of all ages. Often with adults I am interested in getting beyond everyday conversation into deeper layers of self, incorporating an inward focus of the body, mind and spirit. I am eclectic and offer a strength-based approach to help with depression, anxiety, transitions, relationship challenges, overall stuckness and other challenges. My approach is humanistic and compassionate, providing the support needed to get through hardships into a more empowered, creative and celebratory self.

I look forward to helping you through compassion, acceptance, and non-judgmental support. I can help you experience peace, balance and harmony using Art Therapy and /or Internal Family Systems Therapy. Both therapeutic approaches are an effective way to access empowerment, self-confidence, decision making ability, relieve undesirable behavior/thoughts, and engage both sides of the brain so that you are fully present. It increases awareness of self and others and helps you experience success. I can help you shift and rebuild the way you think about the various aspects of your personality, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Therapy can help you find balance, connection, and fulfillment. In order to do so, I believe it's important that we acknowledge the shadow elements of life-the challenges that cause us pain, confusion, and block us from finding a sense of harmony and well-being. I collaborate with you in navigating the shadows and the more buried aspects of your life in order to develop a deeper capacity for balance, personal growth, and healing. To find out more about who I am, how I work, and if I might be the right therapist for you, consider visiting santacruztherapy.org

**PLEASE READ: PRIVATE PAY only and no insurances or superbills. Sliding scale waitlist for gender diverse folx** Hi there, I'm Lisa - my pronouns are they/them. I believe you have everything you need inside of you; I support you seeing this. I'm a coach and therapist. I've been a mental health worker for over six years in adult residential center, school-based, and community-based, as a behavior coach, and individual/ family therapist . My approach is warm, direct, strengths- and mindfulness-based. I work primarily with teens and young adults, which may also include family . My work is neurodiversity affirming and LGTBQIA+ affirming.

As a licensed professional clinical counselor in Santa Cruz, I partner with adolescents and young adults on their mental wellness journey. I will create a safe space for my clients and I to walk through the challenges they identify. Above all, I will honor my clients' privacy, authenticity, and willingness to share their stories with me. Trust, safety, and security are my core values.

This is not always easy work. Exploring trauma, sadness, anxiousness, fear, doubt, insecurities, shifting needs, and more can be challenging and even scary. So much has shifted in our world recently, it feels as if it has also unearthed new chances to also allow ourselves to shift. I imagine that’s why you’re here, searching for ways to connect with and support these parts of yourself, or to help a younger loved one do so. In my work, I choose to employ curiosity and acceptance, informed by models such as Internal Family Systems, to gently lean into change and healing at the client's pace.

In a fast-paced world full of distractions, it's easy to become overwhelmed and run-down. When this happens, it's important to slow down and take care of yourself. Mental and emotional health is just as important as physical, and therapy can be a way for you to learn tools to regain stability and overcome obstacles you may be facing. People sometimes find themselves uncertain about starting therapy. My goal as your therapist is to create a safe space where you feel supported and heard as we work together to navigate challenges that come your way.

Whatever your struggle, the first step of reaching out can be daunting. Each of us is unique. Our stories are our own. Our challenges are deep and personal and are like ice burgs, mostly hidden from view. Sometimes we need someone to help navigate these depths, to help process the present, and the past and to renegotiate the future. This is the path to authenticity, contentment and freedom. This is true for us individually and in our relationships.

I bring a lifetime of spiritual practice, as well as the experience and privilege of having lived as a working artist in Europe for a number of years. I look forward to accompanying you on your healing journey, offering hope and validation, warm support, reassuring guidance. Whatever brings you to therapy - your relationships, stress, trauma, pain, fears, hurts - I will believe in you until you can believe in yourself - your wisdom, your capacity for healing, your inner strengths. You are entitled to experience your own delightful spirit, moments of wonder and aliveness, curiosity and spontaneity, finding joy and peace in your life.

Maybe NOW is the right time. Maybe I am the person. Do you need support and strategies to help you through a difficult time or address a particular problem? Let me help. It is an honor to connect with you and work together to help you overcome obstacles, adjust to transitions, and help you become the person, couple, or family that you want to become. Benefit from my 18+ years of experience, as well as my lifelong active and vital pursuit of knowledge and well-being. Compassionate, effective, intelligent and holistic. Let me help and support you in moving forward.

At points in life we all find ourselves in a place of not knowing. Not knowing how to manage feelings, thoughts, and experiences; not knowing what to do about or how to recover from a major life event; not knowing how to be with others or with the difficulties that arise from being alive and human. I view therapy as a tool for healing and healing as something that begins when we learn how to listen to and relate to ourselves differently. I help individuals, couples and families of diverse backgrounds and identities transform how they relate to themselves and to others in a way that opens the door for healing.

Having relationship issues? I am here to help! I am Level 2 Gottman Method Couples Certified. Let me evaluate your communication and share effective tools that will help your relationship to thrive!

Personal, professional, family and community issues can be challenging. Compassion, honor of the unique individual, plus methods to navigate positively, heal wounds, make wonderful shifts needed! People seek ways to change emotional, spiritual and mental habits internally, while navigating real life difficulties. Honor for your sensitives and uniqueness is given here. I have effectively helped people from a vast array of cultural backgrounds to find ways to healing and positive life change. I go deeper than talk therapy offering all kinds of tools for change from IFS, to EMDR, to hypnotherapy, to somatic to expressive, and more.