Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Greenstein.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and attended Tufts University for my undergraduate degree, where I studied psychology and public health. After graduating, I earned a master’s degree in public health and spent about 10 years working in hospital project planning. While I valued the work, around the time my husband and I moved to New Jersey I began to feel that something was missing and that I wanted a more direct way to help people.
We chose to move to Westfield, New Jersey after visiting a few times while we were dating to see a friend of my husband’s mom. When we came back later to look at houses, we completely fell in love with the town and knew it was where we wanted to raise our family.
Around that same time, I was going through my own challenges trying to conceive. After a difficult fertility journey filled with interventions and disappointments, I eventually gave birth to premature twins who spent time in the NICU. That experience was incredibly meaningful for me personally, but it also opened my eyes to the emotional challenges that so many women face during fertility, pregnancy, and early parenthood.
Feeling both personally inspired and professionally ready for a change, I returned to school at Rutgers University to earn my clinical social work degree. During my training, I completed an internship at the Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Monmouth Medical Center, where I discovered my passion for supporting women and families during the perinatal period.
After graduating, I joined a group practice focused on postpartum and maternal mental health. In 2024, I started my own practice, Lisa Greenstein Therapy. I am also certified in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), an evidence-based therapy for trauma that I frequently use to help clients process birth trauma and other difficult experiences, and I am a few weeks away from being a certified EMDR consultant (providing consultation to other clinicians all over the world).
EMDR is based on the adaptive information processing model, meaning that we experience our present through the lens of our past. By tapping into the brain’s natural neuroplasticity, this type of therapy helps people reprocess painful memories so they no longer feel stuck or overwhelming.
Today, I work primarily with “moms and those trying to be”- women who are trying to conceive, pregnant, postpartum, or navigating the challenges of parenting. I work with overwhelmed moms to find their happiest and truest balance between parenthood and their own identity. I support individuals and couples through infertility treatment, pregnancy and postpartum adjustment, and the emotional transitions that come with becoming a parent. Much of my work also involves helping clients process past trauma that often surfaces during the perinatal period and while parenting.
Pregnancy and early parenthood can create a unique openness to healing. Many people find that their desire to be the best parent they can be motivates them to look at patterns, experiences, and wounds from the past that may have been holding them back. In many ways, it’s a powerful window for growth and transformation.
My husband and I now live in Westfield with our three sons, ages 10, 10, and 7.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Same as many of my clients- balancing work, being a business owner, family and personal life. Part of what appealed to me about private practice was total control over my schedule. I have three very active and busy children, and I try to be present for as much as possible. I try to practice what I preach by maintaining my own hobbies and interests as well.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Pregnancy and early parenthood can create a unique openness to healing. Many people find that their desire to be the best parent they can be motivates them to look at patterns, experiences, and wounds from the past that may have been holding them back. In many ways, it’s a powerful window for growth and transformation.
EMDR utilizes bilateral stimulation (BLS) during recall of a traumatic or distressing experience. Typical modes of BLS include eye movements, tapping, or hand buzzers. EMDR is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD. For those who have identified particular traumatic memories, often one or two sessions can result in major recovery from trauma responses and PTSD symptoms including anxiety, difficulty sleeping or nightmares, and panic attacks. In some studies, EMDR has been shown to be more effective than medication for PTSD and trauma.
EMDR is a highly effective tool for processing birth trauma, or a delivery that did not go the way you hoped and left you feeling disempowered. EMDR can be very healing in addressing the grief around miscarriage, loss of a baby, or complicated feelings about a termination. EMDR can be used to ease anxiety during pregnancy or about an upcoming delivery, and to address the complexities of emotion around infertility treatments.
What matters most to you? Why?
Matrescence, like adolescence, is a profound developmental transition, encompassing hormonal, biological, psychological, and social changes, as well as changes in priorities and how you see the world.
For decades we have acknowledged the seismic shifts that happen during adolescence, and we are beginning to recognize that just like this other important phase in life, matrescence is also an all-encompassing transformation of longer duration than strictly the postpartum period, particularly when it occurs multiple times through multiple pregnancies.
So let’s acknowledge matrescence for what it is: a journey and developmental stage, not an event. And let’s make sure it is normalized and celebrated like the transition to adulthood.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lisagreensteintherapy.com
- Instagram: @lisagreensteintherapy
