Bio
Lisa Danylchuk is a LMFT who discovered her passion for healing work while volunteering in housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, and she’s been working in the field of resilience, wellness and mental health ever since.
She went on to study trauma and resilience at the Harvard Graduate School of Educationwhere she completed a master’s degree and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS).
She has presented at conferences at Harvard University, the American Counseling Association, and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation(ISSTD).
The Quote
Human beings are tender creatures. We are born with our hearts open. And sometimes our open hearts encounter experiences that shatter us. Sometimes we encounter experiences that so violate our sense of safety, order, predictability and right that we feel utterly overwhelmed, unable to integrate and simply unable to go on as before, unable to bear realty. We have come to call these shattering experiences trauma. None of us is immune.
David Emmerson and Elizabeth Hopper, Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body
What Led to the Specialization of Trauma?
When Lisa was an undergrad at UCLA she began working with kids in the Watts area of Los Angeles and loved the experience. One year later, Lisa’s brother passed away suddenly. This confluence of events compelled Lisa to focus on Nothing but the most important things. This experience was the genesis of Lisa’s passion for helping individuals heal.
A Crucial Early Mistake
Lisa talks about the time she was working at a resource center in Los Angeles which was set up to create a community of adults which could support the youth. As a result, different kids were drawn to different adults. However, when it was time for Lisa to leave, she realized that she had made herself too much of an influence on one young individual’s life, which not only made it very difficult for both Lisa and her client, but made her client more reliant on Lisa than she should have been.
Lisa’s Why
This is who I am. I can’t not do this work.
Lisa’s advice
- The more you can learn about yourself, the more depth and awareness you can cultivate, the better!
Lisa’s go-to books
- Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body, David Emerson
- The Developing Mind, Second Edition: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, Daniel J. Siegel
- The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology), Stephen W. Porges