Meet Lisa Elsbecker, LPC

My path to becoming a therapist…

I started as a 4th and 5th-grade teacher after getting my teaching degree in Early Childhood Education from ASU. Then, following the loss of my son, Zach, to substance use, I decided to move away from my 13-year teaching career and enter the mental health field as a means to help families in a similar situation to my own. I graduated with my Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Capella in 2016 and began this new life path helping both inpatient and outpatient clients at treatment centers in and around Phoenix, including Calvary Healing Center and The Meadows before joining True Therapy.

Addiction is a family disease; meaning it doesn’t only affect the one individual with the addiction, the other family members feel the shockwaves too. My family continues to feel the impact of losing our son 11 years ago, so it is meaningful to me to help others avoid that struggle. I am honored to be able to combine my personal experience with the clinical background to enable families to better support the recovery of their loved ones. I am equally devoted to helping individuals with their recovery and personal growth journeys.

A few of the areas I choose to treat:

Throughout my career as a counselor, I have worked extensively with anxiety, perfectionism, shame and guilt, trauma, eating disorders, codependency/enmeshment/enabling, boundaries, communication, ADHD, failure to launch, and, last but certainly not least, substance abuse and behavioral addictions.

I am well-versed in treating all types of substance addictions. I know you may not think of certain milder substances as addictive, but anything we can use to cope with can be addictive. That leads me to the process behaviors I focus on… these behavioral addictions start with everyday tasks that, when taken to the extreme, can give a dopamine high just like a substance addiction. These can include perfectionism, overworking, exercising, controlling food intake, video games and social media, television, gambling, shopping, and sex. 

Nobody fits into a box!

My approach to therapy is based on the understanding that each individual is unique, so I choose from a variety of modalities to come up with a customized treatment plan. Depending on your needs, I may utilize aspects of Family Systems Therapy, CBT, DBT, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), Motivational Interviewing, Post Induction Therapy (PIT), Person-Centered Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT/SFBT), Experiential Therapy, and Mindfulness Techniques.

I am happy to treat teens 13+, adults, and seniors to 100+! And, while I will absolutely support you as an individual, please know that I am also very willing to offer therapy to families who are working to support a loved one going through a difficult struggle. This often includes working with parents on how to improve communication, boundaries, roles within the family, parenting styles, how to support but not enable children, and how to encourage recovery.

Through our sessions, we will work to identify potential contributing factors to your current areas of focus and work on a plan to address them, all while becoming more mindful and working to develop healthy boundaries and greater self-confidence along the way.