Lisa Shields, Psychologist

With more than 30 years in practice as a licensed psychologist, I offer psychotherapy to high-functioning individuals who want to recover from past childhood, familial, and societal trauma, build a large library of coping skills, improve emotional regulation, find greater meaning and purpose, and maneuver through work, relationships, and interpersonal dynamics more gracefully. Therapy is your journey. If you invite me to walk beside you, we will enter a relationship based on trust, honor, and respect. As we walk along your path, I will offer you my best critical thinking, understanding, compassion, and the most up-to-date psychological and neuroscientific findings and knowledge, grounded in more than 30 years of work in this field. I am adept at understanding the relationship between current dysfunctional adaptations to past trauma and maladaptive familial settings. Recognizing and processing trauma on one’s own can be overwhelming. In my practice, I offer a safe space for you to work through past traumatic experiences. I can help you build the acceptance, resilience, and self-compassion necessary to create your new narrative. In psychotherapy sessions, I never proceed faster or further than you can safely go. I am adept at tracking the somatic responses of trauma. For more than 30 years, meaning-making has continued to be an integral aspect of my practice. Because my doctoral degree is in transpersonal psychology, the search for purpose and meaning has informed my studies. Research shows that living a meaningful life increases one’s satisfaction. I will honor and respect your meaning, whether it includes, but is not limited to, nature, spirituality, service to society, race or climate change, religion, money, philosophy, personal relationships and family, psychedelics and shamanic practices, athletics, music, Burning Man culture, or pleasure. The majority of my clients are high-functioning, and I offer expertise in addressing common interpersonal and intrapersonal issues that arise in professional offices, corporations, start-ups, or institutional settings. My studies in psychology have prepared me to competently address issues such as problematic boundaries, low self-esteem and low self-worth, procrastination, and imposter syndrome. Although this is now often termed “coaching,” this has been the province of psychotherapy for many decades. Throughout my years in practice, I have perfected the art of knowing when to listen quietly and compassionately, when to offer practical advice and tools, and when to point out an unconscious dynamic that may be driving maladaptive or self-sabotaging behavior. With more than 30 years in practice, I am uniquely qualified to offer psychotherapy while prioritizing warmth and competence in a professional setting.