Meet Dr. Lizzie

Elizabeth Sauber, Ph.D.

I earned my doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland and completed both a clinical residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. I have specialized training in the treatment of trauma, grief, identity related stress, depression, anxiety, and substance use. In addition, I have worked in a variety of residential and outpatient clinics focused on college students, trauma survivors, hospice/palliative care, gender-specific care, psychosis, addiction, and others. I am a certified provider of Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders.

Outside of providing therapy, I am a full-time professor at a community college, where I teach about mental health, human sexuality, and relationships.

Approach

I use a collaborative, strengths-based approach to help you reinforce what is already working for you and learn new skills to target areas of struggle. I believe that healing and change happen in the context of a genuine, trusting, and consistent therapeutic relationship, and strive to bring these things into our work together. If you are familiar with different therapy names, I mostly draw from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. Alongside this, I also center the wisdom that comes from feminist, queer, and liberation psychologies—my understanding of systems of oppression, and therefore my orientation to therapeutic practice, are informed by my identities as a White, Jewish, queer cisgender woman.

While I work with a wide range of humans, I tend to be a particularly good fit for the following groups of people and areas of focus:

  • Young Adults

  • Older Adults

  • Veterans

  • Queer folks

  • Caregivers

  • Grief and loss

  • Trauma

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Substance use

  • Major life changes/transitions