About Lisa Shields, Ph.D.

Psychedelics have been an integral part of my personal and professional life for over 45 years, serving as a tool for self exploration and informing my worldview as a psychologist—that we are more than our individual isolated egos but are connected to something larger.  In my experience, psychedelics allow for a greater sense of meaning and connection in ourselves.

Like many young seekers in the 1970s, my psychedelic experiences were at Grateful Dead concerts where on many occasions the music served as a portal to a sense of unity to the greater collective. The psychedelic consciousness that was and stills continues within that community made an unequivocal impact on the course of my life.  My personal life has continued to included psychedelic consciousness, healing, and growth.  I have been part of the Burning Man culture since 1995 and many other psychedelic festival communities.

This early interest in altered states of consciousness lead to my first professional calling as a Rebirth practitioner.  Rebirthing is a precursor to Stanley Grof’s Holotopic Breathwork.  Even in the absence of psychedelics, these breathwork techniques can lead one to altered state of consciousness beyond the ego for deep healing.

As these personal experiences continued to accrue in my life by the early ’90s, I wanted to formalize them into a more professional pursuit and obtained my Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology in 1995. I became licensed as a California Psychologist (PSY15368) in 1997.

Transpersonal means beyond the personality. Transpersonal Psychology includes studies in altered states of consciousness, psychedelics, shamanic practices, symbolic meaning, and archetypes. For more than 30 years these timeless traditions, philosophies and theories have woven into the fabric my approach to doing depth psychotherapy with my clients.

I have furthered my interest in Transpersonal Psychology with studies in Buddhism, compassion, forgiveness, mindfulness meditations, yoga, Internal Family Systems, Jungian dreamwork, and Archetypal Psychology. These studies have formed the cornerstone of my expertise in Psychedelic Integration Therapy (PIT).