About Lisa
Lisa Tomala is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in Virginia. She helps people facing anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, bipolar disorder, grief, and addiction. She also supports those dealing with parenting stress, sleep problems, anger, and low self-esteem.
Her work includes addressing relationship and intimacy issues, career stress, and coping with life changes including ADHD-related concerns. She brings 20 years of experience to sessions and uses a flexible set of evidence-based techniques.
How Lisa works
Lisa pays attention to how early experiences shape current behavior and looks for practical ways to change unhelpful patterns. She moves at each person's pace and focuses on symptoms that matter now, while also looking at longer-term roots. Lisa is comfortable including a person’s religious beliefs in sessions when requested, drawing on philosophical principles as appropriate.
She aims to create an open space where thoughts and feelings can be shared without judgment. The tone in her sessions is supportive and direct, with an emphasis on clear steps forward. Her background includes work with people who have faced trauma, depression, anxiety, substance concerns, and grief.
That experience informs how she helps others rebuild after loss or difficult events. Outside of practice, she enjoys time with family, hiking, painting, and her Australian Cattle dog. Lisa explains things plainly and helps people build new meaning and healthier patterns.
She focuses on practical changes that help daily life while also addressing deeper causes when that fits the person’s goals.
What Lisa works with
The areas below are the ones Lisa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
- Bipolar disorder
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Virginia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Lisa’s Approaches Work Online
Lisa uses a few practical, evidence-based ways of working that translate well to online care. Cognitive-behavioral techniques focus on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with small behavioral experiments; this helps with anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Motivational interviewing supports people who want to change habits like substance use or to improve self-care by exploring ambivalence and building motivation. Psychodynamic ideas look at how early experiences affect present patterns, which can help when people want to understand recurring relationship or attachment issues.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Lisa will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked in the past. Together they decide whether to focus on symptom relief, skill-building, deeper exploration, or a mix of these paths.r>
Online therapy offers flexibility for people with busy schedules or limited local options. Video calls provide a face-to-face feel for in-depth work. Phone sessions can be easier when a quieter space is needed or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text messaging suit short check-ins, coaching-style support, or people who prefer typing to talking.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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