Lisa Kelley is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience helping families in the Duluth/Johns Creek/Suwanee communities. Since completing her graduate degree, she has worked with a variety of clients in many different settings including inpatient, residential, outpatient, and home-based care. These varied work experiences have given her the opportunity to become proficient in completing biopsychosocial assessments, a variety of therapeutic interventions, parenting skills education, and community resource referrals. Lisa specializes in working with adolescents, adults, and their families facing issues such as depression, anxiety, relationship issues, and many other stressors that come along with the various life stages families encounter.

Lisa completed her Master of Social Work (MSW) at Ohio State University in 2000 and holds a state of Georgia clinical license (LCSW). During her course of study, she completed two clinical practicums to enhance her assessment and diagnostic skills. Her theoretical approach is based on a combination of family systems theory, existential therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The most central ideas in this work are that families are a system made up of individual parts. If one part of the system is not functioning properly, then the entire system is affected. This can show itself in a variety of ways: a child that is acting out, an adolescent who is taking unusual risks, or a parent disengaging with the rest of the family. As the therapist, she sees her role as a collaborative one to assist the family system return to its functioning state. This can be accomplished by working with the entire family or assisting the family in rearranging their system to accommodate for changes (death of a family member, divorce, etc.). Lisa also sees therapy as an educational process. She often employs cognitive behavioral techniques along with existential therapy techniques when working with family systems. With adolescents and parents, these techniques include identifying unhealthy, negative beliefs and behaviors and replacing them with healthy, positive ones. It’s based on the idea that your own thoughts, not other people/situations, determine how you behave and cope. This work also involves increasing mindful awareness of thoughts that are driving unhealthy or unhelpful behaviors/feelings and looking for potential meaning in the difficult times all humans experience.

Lisa was raised in nearby Asheville, NC, and has been living and working in the Suwanee, GA area since 2001. She is an active member of this community and feels it is a wonderful place to live. Lisa enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis, and volunteering with Adopt A Golden Atlanta. Her goal is to create a practice where she can do the job she loves and still have the flexibility to stay involved with her children and their activities. Over the years, she has found that many families are experiencing the same life-stage struggles she finds herself in every day and works hard to create a therapeutic environment that is casual, comfortable, and empathetic for all family members. She would welcome the opportunity to share this unique therapeutic setting with you and be of help to you and your family.