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ABOUT ELISA
Welcome, and thank you for visiting!
My name is Elisa Friedlander, and I have indulged in the pleasure of journal writing since I was a little girl. My earliest entries are from the age of six - big block letters spelling out joy, desire, heartache and prayer - carefully constructed on lined loose-leaf notebook paper. At the age of eight I began to contain my entries in diaries, those exciting little dated books with fancy schmancy locks on them. I have since housed my words in an array of journals - and on paper scraps, envelopes, post-its, ticket stubs, napkins...because no matter where she is or what she is doing, a writer has to write.
In one of my early diary entries, I wrote about wanting to become a therapist when I grew up, and that childhood fantasy gratefully led to my career. For as long as I can remember, I have viewed the world through the lens of relationships – connection to people, pets, myself, and my journal (after all, one of my earliest partnerships was with my journal). As a psychotherapist, it is a joy and an honor to work with individuals and groups to witness the healing and deepening of relationship to one’s self.
One of my areas of focus is helping people cope with medical conditions, pain, and acquired disability. As a young adult, I began having pain due to a genetic spine disease. In my mid-forties, complicated surgeries resulted in permanent spinal cord damage and the onset of a rare neurological condition which causes intractable nerve pain. While it broke my heart to put my private practice on hold following the surgeries, I volunteered as a support group facilitator, started a blog, wrote articles for publication, and found multiple avenues that enabled me co-exist with extreme physical pain. Through it all, I wrote, and I wrote, and my relationship with my journal became more sacred than ever before.
Returning to my psychotherapy practice (previously in the Bay Area, now in Southern Oregon and of course via Zoom) has felt like a nod to hope, a word that has landed on my pages more times than I can count.
I am overjoyed to soon be offering engaging workshops such as journal writing (for everyone along the continuum of never-journal-writers to always-journal-writers) and more.
Thank you for taking the time to be here...please check back soon for information on classes, groups, workshops and other offerings.