About Lisa
Lisa Rakusin is a licensed clinical social worker with 11 years of experience. She meets people where they are and helps them navigate stress, anxiety, grief, addiction, and major life changes. Lisa focuses on practical steps you can use between sessions and listens closely to your priorities and goals.
Her style is collaborative and direct. She treats clients as the experts on their lives while offering guidance and tools drawn from several proven approaches.
Background and approach
Sessions typically mix conversation, skills practice, and reflection tailored to each person’s needs. Lisa draws on Attachment-Based work to look at how early relationships affect current bonds and patterns. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to help change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
EMDR may be used when trauma and painful memories are central to a problem. Over 11 years in California settings, she has supported people facing relationship strain, parenting stress, workplace burnout, depression, and grief. She also helps with intimacy concerns, self-esteem, and managing anger.
Her additional focus areas include codependency, family of origin issues, and aging and geriatric concerns. Clients can expect straightforward feedback and clear, manageable steps between sessions. Lisa emphasizes strengths and small changes that add up over time.
She encourages questions and works at a pace that feels right for each person.
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Lisa uses Attachment-Based Therapy to explore how early relationship patterns shape current feelings and behaviors, which can help when trust or closeness are hard. She also employs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify and change unhelpful thoughts and actions, a practical choice for anxiety, depression, and stress. When trauma is a central issue, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing can be offered to help process distressing memories and reduce their intensity.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. She will listen to your concerns, goals, and preferences and recommend methods that fit your situation. That plan can change over time as progress is made or new needs emerge, and decisions are made collaboratively.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy easier to fit into a busy life. Video is useful for full conversation and nonverbal cues, phone works when bandwidth is limited, live chat lets you check in quickly, and messaging supports short updates or ongoing coaching between sessions. These options increase flexibility and make it simpler to keep therapy consistent.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Lisa commonly address?
What is her overall therapy style?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What credentials and where is she licensed?
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
Which session formats are available?
How is cost handled?
How do I begin working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Grief
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Intimacy-related issues
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English