I won't ask you to do anything I haven't done myself.

I'm Lida Lisowe, EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ and Approved Consultant™ in Raleigh. I've spent my life as the person others trust with their stories, and I've done my own healing too. Here's a little about how I got here, and how I work.

A proven way to help your brain finish healing.

I truly believe that everyone can heal from a painful past, and that from that healing, people are freed to offer their gifts to the world in whatever way matters to them. That healing does not stop with one person. It ripples outward, into families and relationships and communities, and makes for a more peaceful world. Playing my small part in that, one person at a time, is the most meaningful work I can imagine.

I am also, at heart, a puzzle solver.
Jigsaws, logic puzzles, anything that rewards patience and pattern recognition. I think of each person the same way: not a problem to fix, but a unique puzzle to understand. There is nothing I find more energizing than helping someone see how their own pieces fit together, and watching them step into a steadier, freer version of themselves.

A path that wasn't planned so much as inevitable.

I was born in Belgium to Italian parents, came to the United States when I was five, and spent my teenage years back in Italy. Growing up between countries and languages, I became fluent in French and Italian and deeply at home with difference. That early life gave me something I still rely on every day: an ear for what people are really saying, and for what they are not.

Before I became a therapist, I served six years in the Air Force as an intelligence analyst, earned degrees in mathematics and counseling from NC State, raised three children with my husband of more than 35 years, and kept right on traveling the world whenever I could. Through all of it, I kept landing in the same role: the person others trusted with their pain.

For a long time I did that work inside other people's organizations, and somewhere along the way I realized I wanted the freedom to show up for clients fully, unencumbered by outside influences. So I built a practice of my own, where the work could be exactly what my clients need it to be.

Collaborative, honest, and for your benefit.

Deep training, and a commitment to keep growing.

I hold myself to a high standard, and I never stop learning. Becoming an EMDRIA Certified Therapist™, and then an Approved Consultant, took years of advanced training, supervised practice, and competency-based consultation well beyond basic coursework, and I pursue advanced trainings regularly.

As a faculty member at The Center for Excellence in EMDR Therapy, I also help train and mentor other clinicians. I have practiced EMDR since 2021, earned certification in 2022, and became an Approved Consultant in 2025.