Lissa Chleboun (she/her)

I approach therapy through a psychodynamic lens (specifically attachment-based and object relational) aimed at uncovering how our internalized relational experiences shape our sense of self and others. This process attempts to uncover the roots beneath the surface of our suffering. This may look like processing relational trauma, grief, illness, or life transitions. In addition to this approach, I bring a whole-body perspective to psychotherapy. I approach therapy through mediums which are complementary to talk therapy, addressing any symptom as a whole-body experience. I am a lyme-literate therapist, also educated in autoimmunity and the impact of chronic inflammation on mental health. I bring my background in refugee resettlement and nonprofit program management to my clinical work with individuals by understanding clients’ struggles through larger structures of culture and society, and through a trauma-informed lens.

I have come to appreciate the points in life when things fall apart. I’ve found that much of our lives are lived in the ambiguous “in-between” spaces. The space between start and finish, what was and what is not-yet, what we hope for and what is present now. This liminal space is often painful and disorienting. However, it can also offer us the very space we need to understand ourselves, and the world around us, in new ways. Or, as poet David Whyte says, these spaces are “where all of these difficult revelations can consign us to imprisonment or help us become larger, more generous, more amusing, more animated participants in the human drama.” I also believe we all swim in the water of culture, and larger systems of inequality. I value understanding myself within this context, and am actively learning how to dismantle racist systems of oppression and economic injustice within myself and the world around me.