Meet Dr. Lizzie

Elizabeth Sauber, Ph.D.

I earned my doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland and completed both a clinical residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. I have specialized training in the treatment of trauma, grief, identity related stress, depression, anxiety, and substance use. In addition, I have worked in a variety of residential and outpatient clinics focused on college students, trauma survivors, hospice/palliative care, gender-specific care, psychosis, addiction, and others. I am a certified provider of Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders.

Outside of providing therapy, I am a full-time professor at a community college, where I teach about mental health, human sexuality, and relationships.

Approach

I use a collaborative, strengths-based approach to support what is already working for you, including your innate resilience and knowledge, while also targeting areas of struggle. I recognize that healing and change happen in the context of genuine, consistent, and intentional relationships, and strive to bring these things into therapy along with techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing. I also deeply value feminist, queer, and liberation psychologies and draw upon these wisdoms to explore the struggle of being human from a social justice lens. Relatedly, my understanding of systems of oppression, and therefore my orientation to therapeutic practice, are informed by my identities as a White, Jewish, pansexual cisgender woman.

While I work with a wide range of humans, I tend to be a particularly good fit for the following groups of people and areas of focus:

  • Young Adults

  • Older Adults

  • Veterans

  • Queer folks

  • Caregivers

  • Grief and loss

  • Trauma

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Substance use

  • Major life changes/transitions