Lisa Rakusin, LCSW

Lisa Rakusin is a licensed clinical social worker in California with 11 years of practice. She works with people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and life changes. She approaches clients with respect for their strengths and experience. Seeking help is a courageous step and she aims to support that process. Her style emphasizes listening first and following the client’s lead. She uses client-centered methods to help people tell their story and notice what already works. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to identify unhelpful thinking and try small, practical behavior changes. Attachment-based and emotionally-focused ideas guide conversations about relationships and closeness. Lisa draws on a range of tools to address mood, addiction, and relationship struggles. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing may be part of work with trauma when it fits the client’s goals. She also helps people cope with career stress, parenting strain, anger, and low self-esteem through concrete steps and check-ins. People dealing with aging and geriatric issues can bring concerns about transitions, losses, role changes, and care planning into sessions. She also supports people working through family of origin wounds, codependency, and forgiveness work. In sessions she focuses on collaboration - setting clear goals, trying new ways of coping, and reviewing progress. Everyone moves at their own pace and she adjusts methods to fit each person’s needs and comfort.

How therapeutic approaches shape online work

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early and current relationship patterns affect how people relate today. It helps when recurring trust, closeness, or distance issues cause pain in relationships or personal life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. CBT can be useful for anxiety, depression, and stress-related problems. Emotionally-Focused Therapy centers on feelings in close relationships and aims to change unhelpful interaction patterns to create more safety and connection. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about their needs, goals, and preferences and suggest which approaches might fit best. Decisions about methods are collaborative and reassessed as progress is made. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into work and family life by removing travel time and allowing meetings from different places. They also make it possible to have shorter check-ins when schedules are tight or to choose audio rather than video if that feels better. Because this profile does not specify supported session formats, confirm the available options before booking to learn how sessions are scheduled and delivered.