Welcome! Bienvenidos! Ласкаво прошу! Добро пожаловать!

I’m Liza, a pre-licensed therapist, supervised by Barbara Devaney, LMFT #MFC43190, based in San Francisco on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land, and working with clients throughout California via Telehealth.

My approach draws from Gestalt therapy, mindfulness, embodiment, and polyvagal-informed, trauma-sensitive care. I’m a certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, meditation teacher, and trained in somatic modalities including TRE and Janina Fisher’s trauma treatment framework. If you'd like a more detailed overview of my trainings, you can view a brief summary here.

As a first-generation Ukrainian immigrant who has lived across cultures, I bring to therapy a deep respect for personal history, identity, and the complexity of transition and belonging. My work is grounded in cultural humility and a curiosity about how family, environment, and social context shape our inner world and relationships. To me, this means understanding challenges not as flaws within a person, but as meaningful responses shaped by the larger context we come from — including culture, history, and lived experience.

I also see our nervous systems as part of this larger picture. Our nervous system’s main job is to keep us alive — but sometimes the very strategies that once helped us survive can become stuck, and start to limit our ability to feel connected, present, or at ease. From a Gestalt perspective, the organism is always moving toward health through creative adaptations — not pathology. I understand feelings like depression, anxiety, and burnout as, nervous system responses that arise in our bodies when life has pushed them beyond their capacity. I see my role as helping to create enough safety for your system to gradually settle and expand, so you can meet what life brings with more resilience. This work often involves slowing down, listening closely, and gently building the capacity to stay connected — both to yourself and to what matters most.

I invite you to reach out if this way of working speaks to you. Therapy is a deeply personal process, and finding someone who feels like a good match matters. I’d be happy to connect and answer any questions or curiosities you might have.

.