“If the biggest problem you have with food is that you’re an emotional eater, it’s not a problem you have with food. It’s a question about how you’re coping with your emotions.”
With a solid foundation of mind-body-soul alignment, it is possible for you to reconnect with your true self, live authentically, and finally reconnect with, reinhabit, and befriend your body.
Welcome.
You are a spiritual being having a physical experience - with an animal brain, in a social context. I am a trauma-informed guide using an integrative, holistic approach to support you in feeling safe to embody that, so you can release a “disordered” relationship with food, eating, and/or body image and enjoy a fulfilling life of peace and freedom.
With a solid foundation of mind-body-soul alignment, it is possible for you to reconnect with your true self, live authentically, and finally reconnect with, reinhabit, and befriend your body.
From personal experience, I know the profound healing and empowerment that comes from repairing the relationship you have with yourself, and how absolutely everything about your relationship with food and body image transforms from the inside out when you address the root causes behind why the behaviors (or weight) exists in the first place.
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Fun Facts About Me
I was a band kid (oboe player) once upon a time.
Before Trauma-Informed Coaching and Social Work, I was a total band kid: an all-state oboe player who thought she'd be a music teacher.
I took a gap year after high school to travel before college.
I graduated high school early so I could take a gap year and travel; I’ve always been fascinated by people and different cultures.
I have a 43-second voicemail from Oprah. True story!
Yes, I really do have a 43-second voicemail from oprah winfrey saved on my phone… and no, I will never delete it.
“If you’re eating when you’re not hungry, it doesn’t mean the hunger isn’t real. It just means the hunger isn’t physical.”
Hi, I'm Lisa.
I can’t give you the whole story, but I do want to give you the real story.
Throughout my childhood, I considered myself to be the “strong one.” I knew some people had feelings, I just innocently thought I wasn’t one of them. Without the resources I needed to process my sister’s death when I was five years old, I learned very early on in my life how to distract from, avoid, deny, or disconnect from any thought, feeling, or sensation that felt uncomfortable. This method of coping allowed me to survive – and in some ways, thrive.
I spent my most formative years truly believing that I was always “fine!” or “good!”, that I never needed help, support, or connection, that I could handle everything by myself, and that vulnerability could (and should) be prevented at all costs. My plan was to continue showing up as the good listener, the class clown, the life of the party, and everyone’s best friend for the rest of my life.
I didn’t know at the time that food was helping me stuff down my feelings, that eating was helping me dissociate from my body, or that my “morbid obesity” was helping me feel safe, comforted, and protected like a suit of armor.
I checked out of my human experience after that “big T” trauma of my early childhood, and my body, as well as the authentic, honest (uncomfortably emotional and wildly intuitive) version of my soul living inside of it, felt like foreign entities ever since. Thanks to the disconnection between my mind and body, my so-called “weight issue” was rarely on my radar; it didn’t concern me like it did the adults in my life that I was over 300 pounds when I was 17 years old.
Eventually, my body began to limit my life.
I stopped being able to fit into airplane seats, rollercoasters, seatbelts, booths, chairs, and one time, even a bathroom stall. My dresses had to be custom made and I couldn’t buy anything but scarves at the mall with my friends. I stopped dancing because it hurt, and I stopped playing softball because I could no longer keep up. I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my foot as a teenager, and I remember realizing my body was literally breaking because of the weight it was tasked with carrying. Twice.
During my sophomore year of college, I decided to finally follow the guidance I received from every doctor, nutritionist, dietician, coach, and specialist I ignored as a kid: eat less, move more. With the best intentions and an unstoppable work ethic, I dieted and exercised my way through a rapid 150-pound weight loss. I thought at the time that would be the end of the story… but that’s only because no one ever taught me it’s possible to eat too little and exercise too much.
A nutritionist eventually explained to me that I was so dizzy, nauseous, fatigued, irritable, cold, weak, losing my hair, and no longer getting a menstrual cycle because my body was malnourished and in starvation mode.
I had to recover from a lifestyle of “eating disorder tendencies” by eating more and exercising less.
Now, without rigid dieting as a mechanism of control, the pursuit of weight loss to distract me from my pain, and the dopamine-driven addiction to external praise, I had no choice but to learn how to actually feel everything I worked so hard to—and genuinely thought I could—bury forever. I received professional help, and I worked like a warrior to heal deeply and radically transform my life on every level: mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically, and physiologically.
By creating the safety to focus on my holistic health over my weight, honor my true self, and live (and therefore eat) intuitively, I grew able to peacefully release over-eating, under-eating, an unhealthy relationship with the scale, and an obsession with body image, without regaining the weight I lost.
My spiritual awakening, marked by discovering the truth about the connection between food, eating, obesity, trauma, stress, and emotion, became the foundation and inspiration for birthing Out of the Cave. Through my personal experiences, and then my professional trainings as a Certified Personal Trainer, Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Instructor, and Licensed Master of Social Work, I have developed a revolutionary approach for using the relationship we have with food as a path back home to our authentic selves.
This isn’t a story about weight loss, maintenance, or physical transformation.
This is a story of trauma and recovery, disconnection and reconnection, and rupture and repair.
It doesn't start with food, but it can end with peace.
The way you eat and feel about food now traces back to things that came long before it: experiences and hard seasons that taught you to cope on your own. The philosophy behind this work is about meeting you where these patterns began, so your healing is supportive, sustainable, and aligned with your life.
Introducing The Program
Drawing from a wide range of holistic healing and theories such as:
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Mind-Body Medicine
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Health at Every Size
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Somatic Psychology
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Intuitive Eating
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Neurobiology
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Internal Family Systems
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Self-Compassion
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Cognitive Behavioral Psychology
Driven to support others with similar struggles, I created The Out of the Cave Program, a one-on-one coaching experience designed to help you heal your relationship with food, your body, and yourself on the deepest level.
By addressing the root causes of your struggles and empowering you with the skills, tools, education, and support you need to thrive, you “graduate” with an embodied sense of safety, freedom, trust, and peace with your body and food.
Whether you’ve been struggling with over-eating, under-eating, mindless eating, stress eating, emotional eating, yoyo-dieting, compulsive dieting, or any manifestation of “disordered” eating, The Program is here to meet you where you are with compassion, understanding, and a proven framework that has helped hundreds of people around the world. It’s not about quick fixes, band-aid solutions, overnight transformations, or rapid results; it’s a lifelong approach to healing from the inside out.
The curriculum offers a hybrid of science and spirituality: it draws from a wide range of holistic healing theories and practices including mind-body medicine, somatic psychology, intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, neurobiology, internal family systems, self-compassion, stress management, and cognitive behavioral therapy. These tools help uncover not just what you eat, but why you eat the way you do: addressing habits, emotions, stress, and past experiences that shape your multi-layered relationship with food and your body.
Through this personalized, one-on-one experience, you’ll learn how to confidently listen to your body, honor your needs, and cultivate self-trust and compassion.
You’ll move from fear, shame, and frustration toward balance, empowerment, and lasting freedom - transforming your relationship with food, your body, and ultimately, your life.
