I’m Lisa Shaw, the therapist behind Graceborne Counseling. I believe people do their best healing when they feel respected, understood, and free to bring their whole selves into the room.

My role is not to tell you how to live your life or to position myself as the expert on your experiences. You bring your lived experience, values, strengths, and personal wisdom. I bring clinical knowledge, thoughtful reflection, curiosity, and therapeutic tools. Together, we make sense of what you are carrying and decide what feels meaningful to work toward.

My Approach

My work is trauma-informed, collaborative, strengths-based, and individualized. I pay attention not only to symptoms, but also to the patterns, relationships, experiences, beliefs, and circumstances that may be shaping what you are experiencing now.

Some sessions may involve reflection and conversation. Others may include practical strategies, deeper exploration of patterns, or trauma-focused work. When appropriate, I integrate EMDR into counseling rather than treating it as a separate, one-size-fits-all intervention. My EMDR work is often thematically based, allowing us to explore connections among experiences, emotions, beliefs, and patterns across different periods of your life.

The pace of counseling matters. We work according to your needs, readiness, preferences, and goals.

Experience & Background

I earned my master’s degree from Geneva College, with training in Mental Health Counseling and Marriage & Family Counseling. My professional background includes more than 15 years of work in behavioral health, including extensive experience with substance use, the impact of addiction on individuals and families, trauma, relationships, and complex patterns that can leave people questioning themselves or feeling stuck.

Over time, my work has increasingly focused on trauma, relational wounds, difficult interpersonal dynamics, and helping people rebuild trust in themselves. That experience continues to shape the way I approach counseling today: with compassion, accountability, curiosity, and respect for the complexity of each person’s story.

A Place for Your Own Beliefs and Values

Graceborne is grounded in grace, but counseling here is not based on the assumption that you share any particular belief system. Your beliefs, identity, culture, values, questions, and experiences belong in the conversation because they are part of you.

You do not need to fit a certain mold to be welcome here.

What You Can Expect From Me

I want clients to experience counseling as a genuine working relationship. I may ask questions, notice patterns, offer another perspective, challenge something gently, or introduce a tool that could help. I will also listen when something does not fit.

Counseling should be something we do together, not something that is done to you.