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. And I am a part of the Journalist Trauma Support Network, as I completed a six month training with the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma on treating journalists with occupation-related stress and trauma.
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
My style is collaborative and strengths-based, I want to help you reinforce what is already working for you and learn new skills to target areas where you struggle. I believe that healing and change happen in the context of a genuine, trusting, and consistent therapy relationship, and hope for this in 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 these modalities, I strive to center the wisdom that comes from feminist, queer, and liberation psychologies—my understanding of systems of oppression, and therefore how I understand therapy, 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
Journalists
Grief and loss
Trauma
Anxiety
Depression
Substance use
Major life changes/transitions