Dr Lissa Johnson Psychologist

Lissa is the principal of the practice. Her qualifications are a PhD in Psychology and a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology, from the University of New South Wales. She also has a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies, and a Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology and Psychobiology), with Honours in Psychology. Lissa has over 20 years counselling experience and has been practice principal for 13 years. Lissa cares very deeply about the clients of her practice. She is committed to bringing together a team of therapists who are both warm and compassionate, and highly skilled and qualified, adept at understanding and meeting each individual person's needs. Lissa's key ares of interest and expertise involve relationships and couples therapy, anxiety and anxiety disorders, longstanding life patterns and complex difficulties, trauma and childhood trauma, and self worth and wellbeing. With respect to couples therapy, Lissa has received training from world leaders in couples therapy and research, and is dedicated to best-practice approaches to couples therapy. She works to help couples to turn their problems into vehicles for greater closeness and intimacy. As part of this process she helps couples to understand what drives their problems and to gain new perspectives on the issues that divide them and on their patterns of interaction. Ultimately she helps couples to interact with each other in ways that heal wounds, open new avenues of understanding, and revive connection, trust and love. Other relationship issues that Lissa works with include: dating; relationship breakdown; recurrent patterns in relationships; difficulty forming or maintaining relationships; beginning relationships; learning to relate to others in more constructive ways; and any other difficulties in relationships with partners, colleagues, family or friends. Lissa also has a particular affinity for helping people to come to terms with trauma, whether recent trauma or trauma experienced in childhood. She has worked with many individuals to help them process their traumatic experiences in a way that disentangles their trauma reactions from their current day-to-day experience. She also helps people to heal from trauma in a way that restores equilibrium and a sense of safety, trust, self-worth and stability. With respect to anxiety, Lissa has extensive experience working with social anxiety, fear of public speaking, excessive worry, performance anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, sleep difficulties, health anxiety and generalised anxiety. Other areas of interest and expertise for Lissa include: grief and loss, mood difficulties, stress and work stress, life balance, self-exploration and self-understanding and navigating life transitions and challenges. Lissa has received numerous academic awards, including the University Medal and the Australian Psychological Society Prize. She has taught Psychology to undergraduate students at University, and has presented her honours and doctoral research at national and international conferences. Her PhD research involved processes of reality-perception, self-concept and interpersonal influence, and her honours research examined interactions between immunity, stress, and diet. She has also co-supervised Masters level research investigating autobiographical memory processes in social phobia. Lissa is frequently contacted for comment by the media and writes columns on topics ranging from personal health and wellbeing to social issues. Click here to view a selection of columns and articles. She also prevoiusly served on the Australian Psychological Society Public Interest Advisory Group. She is fully registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, a member of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy, the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian Psychological Society College of Clinical Psychologists, and the Anxiety Practitioners Network.