Lisa Shatzky

Addiction Counsellor

BA, BSW, MSW, RCC

Lisa has been a psychotherapist for 26 years, specializing in the areas of child and adult trauma, addictions, loss, grief, anxiety, post traumatic stress, and crises of meaning. She did her undergraduate degrees at McGill University and her graduate degree at UBC. Lisa continued with four years of postgraduate training and mentorship with the late Dr. David Freeman at Pacific Coast Family Therapy Training Association and three years in Jungian Process Psychology and Psychodrama in order to work with groups using expressive therapies that take into account the mind-body connection. She spent six month in India in her early 20s on an ashram studying the power and potential of using meditation for transformation and healing. In the last decade, Lisa has divided her time between working as a psychotherapist for various agencies and addiction centres in the lower mainland, teaching at the Justice Institute of B.C. and working as an instructor with City University in Vancouver in their psychology department.

She is also a poet, with several books published and with work in magazines and journals across Canada and the U.S. She believes in the inherent wisdom and strength of the individual and that inside every person, no matter what their history and struggles, is a resilient spirit with the capacity to live a life that is meaningful and authentic. With compassion, deep care, and a sense of humour, Lisa works to create a space where individuals can hear themselves and in hearing the power of their own unique voices, each person will discover what it means to transform loss and trauma into hope and a new vision of themselves so that it is possible to move forward.