I’m Lisa Olivera. I am so many things, some amongst them a therapist, a writer and author, a mother, an adoptee, a wife, a photographer, an enneagram 4, an INFJ, a lover of existential waters & thrifting & deep conversations, and a lifelong learner. I thrive with ample alone time and connection to nature. I live for small-town bookshops, good puns, long drives on the backroads, walks in the forest, and writing in cafés. I’m learning how to build new friendships as an adult, to stick to morning pages, to embrace my neurodivergence, to remember the systems at play in how I experience the world, to lighten up whenever possible, to stay close to the pulse of aliveness. I’m devoted to practicing; I see everything as practice.

Much of my childhood was spent feeling like I didn’t belong, always peering into aliveness from what felt like the outside. Growing up as a foundling in an adopted family made things like connection, love, trust, and worthiness complicated; this complication led to an intimate relationship with pain, grief, and loneliness, one I am still finding my way beyond. This intimacy with darkness is what cultivated a deep desire to be of service, to walk alongside others finding their way beyond their own aches, to sit with others as they learn how to move toward joy and connection and presence, even amid what hurts. I am wildly humbled by this act, by this gift.

I seek to bring authenticity, warmth, and curiosity into all I do. My personal work feels deeply woven with my work in the world, each mirroring one another and amplifying what matters most. I am forever in absolute awe of the human experience, of how most of us share similar longings, of what is possible when we move beyond the narrow visions we often hold of ourselves.

I am devoted to walking alongside others as they embark on their own deepening sense of self, other, and the world. It is through my own path that I understand the necessity of not doing it alone, of being witnessed and held in our process, and of staying close to the body, senses, and earth as we traverse inward and outward.

I live with my husband, daughter, and our two cats in Sonoma County, California, on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people.