Lisa Creager

Lisa is a North Carolina Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, LCMHC.  She received her Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling from The University of Georgia in 2001.  Before that, she earned her undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Virginia Tech.  She has a vast array of experiences that inform her therapeutic practice.  In addition to working as a therapist in private practice, she has worked in the corporate world, as a sports massage therapist for The University of Georgia swim and gymnastic teams, as a school counselor at the elementary and middle school levels, and as a yoga instructor.  She has most recently lent her experience to helping developing race car drivers learn positive stress management skills.

Lisa draws from several therapeutic approaches, but leans heavily on bottom-up approaches that help integrate the body and brain.  She may initially use a brain-based approach such as CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) to highlight ways to truth-test thoughts, but will focus most of the attention on EMDR to desensitize/delink and rewire the brain’s associations with negative and recurrent themes.  She will also incorporate mindfulness/meditation to calm the nervous system and help invite regulation.  Her goal is to shift clients from surviving to thriving.

In her time away from work, she enjoys researching (Polyvagal theory, somatic awareness, EMDR techniques) reading non-fiction and fiction, spending time with family and friends, doing yoga, teaching yoga, connecting with trees, playing with our family’s pets (2 dogs and 2 cats), collecting intergenerational stories and wisdom from extended family members, and doing service and community projects through The National Charity League and Love Lake Norman Church.