Erika Fadahunsi Lizardo

Most people don't reach out because of one thing. They reach out after a hundred smaller ones. The disagreement that unfolds the same way every time. The teenager who used to talk and now doesn't. The fatigue of holding everyone together while quietly running out of room to fall apart yourself.

I'm Erika, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over eleven years of experience. I came to this work through families, and I still believe much of what hurts us began in one, whether that's the family you grew up in or the one you're building now. My background spans community mental health, child welfare and foster care systems, residential and outpatient treatment, and family therapy, which means I've sat with people at nearly every stage of struggle and repair.

I work with adults, teens 13 and up, couples, and families. Common reasons people come to me: anxiety that never fully turns off, depression, grief, life transitions, burnout and the weight of being the person everyone else relies on, communication breakdown, trust and betrayal repair, parenting and teen conflict, and blended family dynamics no one prepared you for.

I'll validate you and I'll challenge you. You'll feel understood here, and you'll also be stretched, because that's where change actually lives. I don't brush past things. When a pattern keeps returning, we look at where it began, what it once protected you from, and what it's costing you now. I'm direct, I'm warm, and I move at the pace you set. After more than a decade in this work, very little surprises me, and nothing you bring will change how I see you.

What you're carrying is heavy. It's also workable. You can do hard things, and you don't have to do this one alone.

Therapy with me is a partnership. You bring what you're living with, and I bring the training, the structure, and the questions that help it make sense.

I practice from an integrative, trauma-informed lens, which means I draw on the approaches that fit your situation rather than applying the same protocol to everyone. With couples, that often means Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Gottman Method, slowing the cycle beneath the conflict so each partner can hear what the other is actually asking for. With individuals, it may be Internal Family Systems and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to understand the parts of you that want opposing things, or cognitive, mindfulness-based, and DBT skills when thoughts and emotions move faster than you can manage them. With families, I work from structural and Bowen family systems to examine roles, boundaries, and patterns passed down without anyone choosing them.

What remains consistent is the depth. I'm not interested in managing a symptom without understanding it. When something continues to repeat, we trace where it began and what it has been protecting, because that understanding is what allows change to hold.

You'll find me warm, steady, and direct. I'll reflect what I observe, ask about what sits underneath it, and check in with you about whether the work is helping. You set the pace.

What you're carrying may be heavy. It is also workable, and you don't have to carry it on your own.

The first session is a conversation, not an interrogation. Most people arrive expecting something harder than it turns out to be.

My focus is on understanding you: what brought you to therapy now, what you've already tried, and what you would like to be different. You don't need to have it organized or well explained. Making sense of it together is the work.

Nothing is drawn out before you're ready. You set the pace, and I follow it. If something feels too raw for a first meeting, we can return to it when you decide.

By the end of the hour, you'll have a clear sense of what we're working toward and how we'll approach it. When I'm meeting with a couple or family, I make certain each person is heard. My role is not to determine who's right, but to help you understand one another better.

Most people leave their first session with some relief and a clearer sense of direction. That's usually a good indication of what's ahead.