And in the winter, a fire was born. She survived San Marino with her passion for rock music, animals, sprinting for the varsity track team and riding her horse, Razz. Dr. Lisa (Sag with Scorpio rising) followed her father’s alma mater and pursued a 13 year commitment to the University of Southern California (USC) earning a double B.S. in Psychology (1983) and Critical Gender Studies(1983), a M.S.(1986) and a Ph.D.(1991) in existential-humanistic, intersubjective and depth psychologies. Her groundbreaking qualitative doctoral dissertation(1991) (Qualitative Reconstruction of the Adolescent Self and the Meanings and Self-Object Functions of Rock Music: Eight Case Studies) was theoretical, phenomenological and re-defined rock music subgenres as well as the meanings and functions of solitary rock music engagement for each adolescent’s sense of self.
From 1986-1995, she worked; first as a registered intern, then as a licensed psychologist (1993-2004) providing outpatient psychoanalytic psychotherapy for Advanced Behavioral Medical Group and their sister company, Life Fitness Center in Glendale with supervisor, Dr Daniel Asimus, MD. For ten years, at ABMG/LFC, Dr. Lisa specialized in work with individuals struggling with eating “disorders”, addictions, chronic and acute psychosis, borderline and narcissistic personality, multiple personality, PTSD, OCD, anxiety and Bi-polar“disorders”. She developed and co-directed with Dr. Asimus MD, an inpatient cocaine treatment center for adolescents and their parents at Mountain View Lodge Hospital. She worked with some of her inpatients at Glendale Memorial, Edgemont and Charter Oak hospitals. She slowly transitioned into her own private practice (1993-2000) serving Silverlake, Los Feliz, Hollywood, Glendale and Burbank. She carved out a niche for herself working with musicians and the entertainment industry, recovering physicians, Middle Eastern women and their families, troubled teens and over-diagnosed ADHD children.She studied with intersubjectivist, Dr. Robert Stolorow, Ph.D. (Founding Faculty Member and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP), Los Angeles; Founding Faculty Member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine ) in his peer supervision group for two and a half years. She also recieved supervision from Dr. Monahor Shinde, MD (Eating Disorder Institute), from India.Inspired by her rock dissertation and a wave of female bands and along with financial assistance and support from Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, executive rock producer Tina Silvey Co, and drummer Kyle C Kyle, Dr. Lisa embarked on a seven year journey. She wrote, directed, produced her award winning documentary film, Not Bad for a Girl (1995). She toured internationally and spoke at over 70 universities, art houses, museums, psychological conferences, radio and TV stations about madness and creativity, music, sexuality, gender performance and gender deconstruction.A member of the International Documentary Association (IDA), she offered psychological consulting/acting coaching to Renee Humphrey, Alicia Witt, and Leslie Hope in Rafael Zelinskys Sundance Festival winner and psychological thriller film, “Fun”. She co-produced Stories about Breast Cancer with performance artist Sheila Moorland and planted 1300 upper torso mastectomy casts on posts on the lawn of the Griffith Park grass symbolizing breast cancer gravestone casualties staged during National Breast Cancer Awareness week. She raised $26k for breast cancer research co-producing an auction of famous undergarments at the Playboy Club.After a frantic pace as a psychologist-by-day and a director/public speaker-by-night, she shelved Not Bad for a Girl, for 12 years. Exhausted and seeking balance, light and spiritual inspiration, she created a vision quest to Montana, navigated by her red tail hawk allies. Inspired by Lyn Andrews, she consulted with medicine womyn allies Lynn Crow and Brook Medicine Eagle. Upon her return, she joined a Taoist improvisational healing meditation group and worked with a Chinese acupuncturist in Santa Monica. Creating her first phoenix fyre, she walked away from all that she was in LA, shelved her film and closed a thriving private practice to start anew. In 1997, she began phasing out her private practice and relocated from her home in Los Feliz/Silverlake to San Diego. There she planted a healing garden and cultivated breathing and stillness. She founded Sacred Sanctuary, and gave health interviews about herbs and rediscovering silence and vispassana.Twelve years later, she redigitized her film and put Not Bad for a Girl onto DVD as a feature, along with 99 chapters so you can view the film by artist/band as well as the final cut version. You can finally find and buy Not Bad for a Girl vol 1!!! Meanwhile vol 2 is finishing as a book sequel including all the female bands that we could not fit into vol 1.She continued her education by taking Holistic Health Practitioner classes at the Expressive Arts Institute, University of California, San Diego’s Expressive Arts program, and the Natural Healing Institutestudying spa, massage, energy medicine and acupuncture. She also studied a variety of dance forms and worked with a variety of teachers including Odissi: Guru Yudhisthir Nayak, Butoh: Charlene Penner & Diego Pinon, Flamenco: Adrianna de Cillo, belly dance: Elle, Heather Stance, Urban Tribal Dance Co, guru Rakizitina and the BonaDea collection. Feeling inspired by the expressive healing arts, she began performing dance, meditation, and healing ceremonies at clubs & events including: Montage, The Mayan, Bliss, Fetish, Stimulus II, Club Utopia ( Las Vegas) and the El Rey Theatre. She performed in private groups and select intentional communities. She played with Technomania Circus, Circanalia & Kyrad’s LA Underground Circus, Moontribe and Mystic Family Circus. She choreographed her own rituals and also worked with various talent, including dance choreographer Brian Frette, for her Tantra Theatre and Dance Co at Burning Man (1999-current). She facilitated healing shamanic rituals with Anahata, VisnuPria, Stardust, BlueGirl, Adrienne, Fantuzzi, Karl Fyre God, MJ and Hamsa Lila, Vickie Morgan, Elissa Kisselburg at Sacred Sanctuary (SD, NYC) (2006), the Love Temple (2001-2002), Francoises (2002), M. Samko’s Ph.D. parites (2000-2005), Divine Ranch (2003-2004), Shangri-La (2001-2), the Sedona Temple (2004), Earthdance (2004-5), SD’s annual 11/11 celebrations (2001-2003), Burning Man (1999-2004) and countless clubs from LA to Miami Beach (1999-2008).In 2000, Dr. Lisa opened up Sacred Sanctuary to those who shared the vision of cultivating conscious awakenings. Sacred Sanctuary hosted classes, seminars and workshops on nutrition and conscious eating, sound healing, permaculture/conservation, world dance and drumming, meditation, mindfulness satsung, energy medicine, yoga, enlightened sexuality and shamanism by Dr. Lisa and guests. Dr Lisa has been a guest speaker on radio and TV regarding health, mindfulness, compassion and creativity.Christiaan Sun joined Dr. Lisa and the two studied with the Boutenkos, Gabriel Cousens, M.D., Daivd Wolfe and many raw food chefs on the use of raw food for cleansing, healing and awakening. From 2000-2003, the two offered health talks and raw food preparation classes and cleansing retreats at Sacred Sanctuary for those suffering with hepatitis, HIV, cancer, food and drug addiction and assisting clients to overcome obstacles to conscious eating and living. Dr. Lisa has continued this tradition and blends conscious eating and raw food with all her programs and still recruits nutrition interns.Dr. Lisa/Sacred Sanctuary has hosted Tibetan Buddhist monks on pilgrimage and raised monies for an orphananage in Tibet and their Monastery in India. This included Dawa, who was introduced to Dr Lisa by Jim Applington. Dawa and his wife nourish Tibetan children orphaned by the Chinese invasions. Many monks and rimpaches from the Gaden Shartse Monastery, have stayed at Sacred Sanctuary, blessed her home, facilitated purification rituals, offered prayers, sand mandalas, butter sculptures and helped many who suffering. The monks re-named Dr Lisa, DeviLisa.In 2002, with her heart chakra wide open, Dr. Lisa accepted an offer to work in the California State Prisons as a contract psychologist. It was here, in prison, that she earned a second “street Ph.D” in criminology at prison. She defines prisons as higher institutions of fear, violence, sociopathy and predatorial relationships. Already in alignment with the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Dr. Lisa interviewed with ex-convict, John Sherman, who became self realized after meeting Gangaji in federal prison. Dr. Lisa conferred with staff at San Quentin Prison and created Satsung in the Hole at both RJ Donovan State Prison in the hole and New Folsom State Prison’s SHU. For 10 years, Dr. Lisa studied prisons. She became an advocate for disenfranchised prisoners, helping with political campaign writing, prisoners going before boards, and advocacy for prisoners abused by the system. She was successful with multiple litigations for institutionalized prisoners with SHU syndrome and successfully sued a misguided warden and some misguided correctional officers who had lost their way and were practicing prisoner abuse.Feeling it was the right time, Dr Lisa surrendered her license in (2004) in an attempt to minister and help prisoners and work outside the confines of the licensing board. Amazing miracles were witnessed; such as prisoner Len, who had previously aspired to live and die in prison, as an Aztecan warrior. When Len met Lisa, he began to deconstruct. Over time, Len began removing his gang tattoos and slowly became acquainted with new possibilities as Zen Len. Zen Len trusted Dr Lisa and her vision for Len to offer gang awareness to at-risk Hispanic youths and he did so with the TFK foundation and at juvenile hall. It was through her allegiance to Sureno Len that Dr Lisa learned the high arts of detachment and releasing her own prisons. She has been assembling a massive memoir of her odyssey midwifing prisoners, parolees and ultimately herself. By fathoming criminology, she has been able to recognize humanity’s primitive predatorial relationships and help facilitate spiritual liberation. She is calling in allies to produce/direct this story.In 2003-4, she called in the Visionary Midwives and together they produced Women’s Weave and birthed Spiral Awakening and The Spiral Arts Institute. In 2004, she spread this vision to NYC, the Hamptons, DC, Boston and Florida. For the next 5 years facilitated Enlightened Sexuality and pranic meditation sessions, workshops and Shamanic Theatre. Over 9 years she has documented a raw, sometimes brutal phenomenological odyssey while cultivating her own signature Tantra methodology in NYC.She returned to San Diego and launched her Enlightened Sexuality Survey for womyn and the Yoniverse Summit to raise awareness and funds and support alternatives to female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa and the Middle East. She has been investigating ways to address sex trafficking in Indonesia/Malysia. For the last 4 years, she has been communicating with Rugiatu (AIM) in West Africa andDr. Nancy Peddle and more recently, Hadi (in Indonesia and Malysia). She is raising money to document the evolution taking place in the secret societies in Sierra Leone. Her teen Enlightened Sexuality education program and abroad kicked off in 2008 and she presented at AASECT’s national conferences on the subject 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2012-13, she is seeking finishing funds to show her film Enlightened Sexuality covering teen sex-education globally.From 1999-2004 she studied and offered Tantric yoga puja, dance, meditation, energy medicine and sexual healing and ascension with partner Robert Frye. She worked with or had training with “Tantric” facilitators Bodhi Avinasha, Mantak Chia, Mare Simone, Cynthia Taylor, Shell, Francoise, Osi, Kamalla Allen, Ph.D. and medicine guides, Rakizitina and the BonaDea collection. Dr Lisa aka Alchemy Devi studies, teaches and celebrates the pursuit of her own brand of white tantra, pranic safe sex.Sidekicks: Dr. Lisa has dedicated years rescuing and rehabilitating pitbulls (her stars: Passion, Rosie, Otis/Odabear, Carmen and Oliver). She uses pitbulls for her dog bite prevention program in elementary schools (1997-2004), after-school programs and elder care facilities. Otis and Jenny (her Rhodesian Ridgeback) have been awarded by the US Humane Society for their dedication to children and elders. Odabear has been covered by local news. Odabear handed the torch to Oliver (OliBear), who works with autistic, insulin-dependent and hearing impaired children.
Dr Lisa has been devoted to consciously housing and maintaining a large exotic collection of serpent guides. This began from a snake vision in Montana and was encouraged by medicine woman Lyn Crow. It culminated in the refinement of a spiritual practice she refers to as Snake Medicine. Dr Lisa has revived ancient rituals women used to heal and inspire for centuries through snakes. She offers Snake Medicine, in various formats, to all ages from elementary schools, churches, to private parties and shamanic or pranic intentional gatherings. She is excited readying to share Snake Medicine with larger audiences. She has been covered by radio show, Animal Talks, Alan Swayer’s documentary film “Meditation: East Meets West 2006)” and was invited on the Jon Stewart Daily show following “Snakes on a Plane” ( 2006), to dispel fears and discuss snakes what snakes really like to do. She was interviewed and filmed by National Geographic for a show hosted by Henry Rollins, “Snakes Underground” (2010). He classes have been covered by the Orange County Register facilitating Naga Yoga and Snake Whisperer classes. She was inspired when reading a published book of her recently transitioned cousin, Ana Vitta (Italian actress, sculptor, artist, jewelry designer) whose work also celebrated women mysteries in connection to serpent. The BonaDea (jewelry) Collection will be released in the fall of 2013. Dr Lisa participates in reptile conventions, snake shows, fairs and other events sharing the arts of Snake Medicine as a Snake Whisperer.
Dr. Lisa has been on the board of directors of the Association of Holistic Health and is a member and sex educator with the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). For three years, she has presented at AASECT (2009, 2010, 2011) on White Tantra with teens and at universities on sexuality and gender. She is also a public speaker and has presented at universities, conferences, museums about awakening through the arts of meditation, energy medicine/prana, dance, nutrition, presence, consciousness, quantum psychology, shamanism, tantra, communication and conservation.
Her specialties include intersubjective, humanistic, ego and depth psychologies, phenomenology, singing, playing and cocreating sound healing, hearts awakening, expansion, the power of touch, contact improvisation, pranic art and choreography, gender play and ego deconstruction, enlightened sexuality, energy medicine, meditation, shamanism, cosmology, interactive theatre, conscious eating, consciousness, nature and conservation/sustainability, community and animal medicine.
A lifelong devotee to the ocean, marine life, waves and body surfing since childhood and inspired by the wave break at 56th street; her summer home (Newport Beach), she is currently an avid bodysurfer, and you may find her in San Diego, Mexico and Costa Rica. She also loves ocean swimming, kayaking, boating, scuba diving and snorkeling . Dr. Lisa offers Goddess Wave ® clothing, energy dance meditations and art, qi rituals at sunset cliffs and del mar cliffs, bodysurfing sessions/retreats.
If you are inspired and want to sit still, gaze, laugh, cry, rejoice, harmonize, heal, awaken, dance, surf, swim, evoke or cocreate with her, contact her!
SpiralAwakening at gmail dot com
Looking forward to the possibilities~