Lisa Gajda

LMFT, Clinical Supervisor

I’m a somatic and trauma-informed therapist who works with individuals and couples ready to move beyond insight alone and into embodied, lasting change.

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Hover over the shapes below to read about Lisa’s specialties.

Experiential Therapy

Work with your body to move beyond the mind and into a felt sense of change.

Trauma

Therapy allows the individual to engage the trauma healing process within a safe environment.

AEDP

Come back into direct contact with your present experience.

I’m a somatic and trauma-informed therapist who works with individuals and couples ready to move beyond insight alone and into embodied, lasting change. My approach draws from experiential, attachment-based modalities like AEDP, Internal Family Systems, and EMDR—frameworks that help us safely access the emotional and physiological roots of long-standing patterns.

Healing becomes something you experience directly, often creating more traction than insight alone can offer.

Many of my clients are high-achieving, capable, and deeply self-aware. They often arrive knowing why they feel the way they do, but still feeling stuck. They’ve connected the dots, named the wounds, maybe even done a lot of work already—yet the same cycles of overfunctioning, shutdown, anxiety, or disconnection keep resurfacing.

Experiential therapy works in the body, in the moment, and within the safety of a regulated relationship—where the nervous system can begin to rewire and something new can actually be felt and integrated. This is the “what to do” in response to, “I know why I am the way I am, but now what?”

Before becoming a therapist, I spent 25 years as a Broadway performer—an intense and beautiful life that taught me the thrill of mastery and the cost of constantly pushing beyond my limits. Achievement was a brilliant early adaptation that helped me survive, but over time, I began to see how it also kept me disconnected from my needs, my emotions, and myself. I now specialize in working with others who’ve used achievement, caretaking, or emotional suppression to stay safe—and who are ready to trade survival for something more alive, more connected, and more sustainable.

We keep the excellence, but lose the prison.

I specialize in trauma healing, nervous system regulation, and helping high-achieving individuals move beyond burnout, anxiety, and stuck relational patterns. I also work with couples seeking deeper connection and repair. My practice is rooted in warmth, depth, and experiential methods—and is fiercely affirming of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC clients. I offer supervision and mentorship to therapists, with a focus on relational and somatic approaches to care. Therapy with me is deep, collaborative, and grounded in attuned presence. We move from fear to freedom, from running to returning. Coming home to yourself isn’t easy—but you don’t have to do it alone. We dive together, and that’s where real transformation begins.

When I’m not deep in the work of healing, you can find me walking the streets of Manhattan for actual hours, partying with my husband and two kids, or watching reality TV with the devotion of a scholar. I believe in big feelings, bad TV, gossiping with friends, and the magic of finding yourself right in the middle of real life.