Meet Lisa Lavelle, LCSW.

A psychotherapist for people who are used to doing hard things well, and need one place where they can stop performing and be honest.

I work with high-achieving individuals and couples, people who are good at their lives on paper and quietly worn out underneath. My job isn't just to hand you techniques. It's to understand, with you, how you got here and what keeps the pattern in place.

I’ve been in private practice for more than twenty-five years, trained at the Ackerman Institute and licensed as a clinical social worker in New York. I am trained systemically, and I draw on emotionally-focused and psychodynamic work. Therapy is not a one-size-fits-all model, so I am intentional and specific about what works for each couple. I lead with the relationship, because the fit between us matters more than any single method.

I cut through years of buildup to get to what actually needs to be said. With couples, I work in the most complex dynamics of the relationship, and I don’t soften the hard conversations. My aim is to help you rebuild, or to help you get clear about the relationship’s future. Which of those it turns out to be is yours to decide, and I will be honest with you the whole way there.

I’ve also spent decades teaching other clinicians how to work in the middle of a couple’s conflict without flinching. I served as Director of Training at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, and I taught couples therapy at NYU and at Hunter College. Teaching made me precise about the work: you cannot explain to a room of clinicians why something lands without understanding exactly why it does.

Earlier in my career I worked extensively with families facing serious illness. I co-directed the Center for Families and Health at Ackerman, supervised clinicians on the Family Focused Grief Therapy Project at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and wrote about that work in The Therapist’s Notebook for Family Healthcare. It shaped how I think about pressure, secrecy, and what people do when something is genuinely at stake.

Outside the therapy room, you'll find me with my husband and kids, on a tennis court, out for a jog, or dancing to '90s hip hop. I believe in slow, durable change, a little humor, and the plain relief of finally being understood.

Teaching, training, and writing.

How I think about the work.