More about my background:

About Lisa Baxter

As a former OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner-turned-doula and trauma recovery specialist, I offer my advocacy, teaching and coaching skills to help you develop the tools you need to walk into your next exam feeling safe, empowered, and supported.

Throughout my time in clinical practice as a Nurse Practitioner I had the privilege of caring for people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, across the spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities. As an educator, I’ve trained hundreds of healthcare providers in the basics of a trauma-informed exam.

And I’ve also seen how healthcare providers, even with best intentions, can profoundly harm clients when the totality of their whole selves during the exam is not recognized and supported.

I also know this personally. As a person with hard to diagnose medical complications I have spent over 20 years advocating for myself during doctor visits, tests and examinations of many kinds.

Being a healthcare provider does not guarantee receiving kind or thoughtful care, and I have had to work hard to learn my own self advocacy skills.

During the years in my dual roles as provider and patient I have realized that we as patients cannot simply navigate around our trauma; we need to give our traumatized selves the care and support we so desperately need and deserve.

A woman with short, gray hair and hoop earrings, smiling outdoors in front of green foliage, wearing a gray t-shirt with pink text that reads 'Women's Health Matters,' along with a pink heart and the words 'Educate. Advocate. Empower.'

More about Practical Empathy

I learned long ago that I am not cut out to follow one text book method of healing practice. I bring the following skills to all of my sessions- but what I value the most about my work is what we will co-create together. I don’t have a formula, I am looking to find the synergistic space between us - that is where the healing lies.

Let's Meet

  • Compassionate Inquiry

    Developed by Gabor Maté, this technique uses gentle questioning to help clients uncover core beliefs, connect to their authentic selves, and heal developmental trauma—often very quickly.

  • Somatics

    Somatics engages with the intuition of the body, recognizing that emotions are stored in and expressed through the body as well as the mind. Somatic work requires no touch; it is a supportive process for you to tune into your own sensations, bodily awareness, and associated emotional and thought patterns.

  • Coaching 

    Through the process of coaching, I reflect with you as you make meaning of your emotional and sensational discoveries, and I collaborate with you to create and act on intentions for new personal care. Each session may address different challenges you face, or sessions may be a continuation of an ongoing area of focus. How sessions are used is always led by your preferences and comfort.

  • Empathetic Connection 

    No amount of education or skill can replace the invaluable necessity of empathetic connection. Trauma creates disconnect from self, and the tragic irony is that disconnection from self creates disconnection from others – the very thing most needed to heal. Real healing happens in the presence of a genuine, nonjudgmental, and compassionate human relationship.

  • Medical Experience

    When I was providing medical care it was always fundamental for me to care for every human as a whole being - which means my interest in you as a whole will always show up in our sessions. While I won’t offer medical advice, I do check in on your physical and mental wellbeing, to whatever extent you agree to and find helpful. I will also help you advocate for yourself in all parts of your life, and I offer optional practice clinics and desensitization exams so that you can claim your safety in medical environments.