Psychotherapist, Meditation Teacher

From an early age Lizzie has pursued her interests in spirituality, philosophy, and emotional healing and transformation. After some immersion in the Vedanta and TM she found a home in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition with such teachers as Zazep Rinpoche and Geshe Sonam Rinchen. Her exploration led to Zen where she sat with Subhana Barzaghi and Geoff Dawson and to Vipassana and the Western Insight tradition.

Liz holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of New South Wales. Her thesis was an interdisciplinary study of self-transformation in the Twelve Steps recovery movement where she drew on phenomenology, depth psychology and Buddhist philosophy. She lectured for a number of years in the areas of embodiment and death and dying, as well as undertaking research in the care of the dying in the intensive care unit. Her focus on death and dying arose out of meditation practice on impermanence and emptiness, and in the recognition of the fear of death in society.

Realizing she wasn’t cut out to be an academic Lizzie trained in somatic, humanistic and psychodynamic psychotherapy, and later in Focusing, Hakomi Heart Relationships Training (a specialization integrating experiential and Internal Family Systems), EMDR, the EMDR Strategic Developmental Model, and the Buddhism and Psychotherapy Professional Training Course offered by The Australian Association of Buddhist Counsellors and Psychotherapists (AABCAP).

Lizzie was on the Training Executive of AABCAP, is formerly a director of Somatics – Body Oriented Psychotherapy Training and has taught psychotherapy and counselling for a number of training organisations, including the Australian College of Applied Psychology, and The Australian College of Contemporary Somatic Psychotherapy.

Lizzie has a psychotherapy practice in Northern NSW (Byron Bay area).