Psychotherapy Expert for High-Achieving Professionals & Couples

Lisa Chen, LMFT has been quoted as an expert source on burnout, high achiever psychology, emotional regulation, attachment, and relationships in over 20 national and international publications from Newsweek and Self to Bustle and Dazed Digital.

35+
National & International
Publications
5
University Speaking
Engagements
2
Practice Locations +
Statewide Telehealth
2
Published Works
The Architecture of Intimacy™
The Architecture of Us™

As Seen In

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Meet Lisa Chen, LMFT

Lisa Chen, LMFT is a psychotherapy expert based in Hermosa Beach, California, specializing in high-achieving professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and couples navigating burnout, anxiety, trauma, and relationship strain. She is the founder and Executive Director of Lisa Chen & Associates Therapy, a boutique psychotherapy practice serving the South Bay and clients across California via telehealth.

Her work blends psychodynamic depth with neuroscience-informed approaches, including EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and evidence-based couples therapy. Lisa is frequently quoted in national media for her expertise on emotional regulation, relationships, productivity, and mental health in high-pressure lives.

Quick facts for media:

  • Corporate leadership background + clinical credential

  • Speak & write publicly on: performance anxiety, trauma in success-focused clients, relational ruptures in high-achiever partnerships

  • Available for TV/print/podcast interviews, quote requests, expert commentary

Lisa Chen, LMFT, founder of Lisa Chen & Associates Therapy, has been featured in national publications and invited to speak at leading universities and mental health organizations. Known for her calm expertise and clinical insight into high-achiever psychology and relationships, she brings depth and clarity to conversations about sensitivity, leadership, and resilience.

Featured In

Recent Media Coverage

Bustle
2026
Psychology & Emotion There's a Psychological Reason the Olympics Make You Emotional

Lisa Chen explains the phenomenon of "collective effervescence" — the spike of emotional energy that occurs when witnessing connection, awe, and triumph simultaneously. She speaks to why some people are far more prone to crying at athletic competition, and what it reveals about nervous system sensitivity and our deep need for shared human experience.

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Bustle
2026
Modern Dating TikTokers Have Formally Decided What Day Is Best for a First Date

Lisa Chen weighs in on why Thursday is the ideal first date night — carrying weekend energy without the weight of expectation that Friday or Saturday can impose. She also explains why Monday is the worst choice for a first impression, and how the day of the week subtly shapes the emotional tone of a new connection.

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Bustle
2026
Relationships Why "April Theory" Might Be Behind Spring Breakups

Lisa Chen explains how seasonal shifts naturally prompt people to reassess what's been weighing them down — including relationships. She speaks to why dynamics that felt manageable through winter often become impossible to ignore once spring arrives, and what it means when the season changes but the relationship doesn't.

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Newsweek
2025
Burnout & Relationships Are Millennials Too Tired to Cheat?

Lisa Chen breaks down why millennial burnout is quietly reshaping the landscape of infidelity. When emotional and physical reserves are depleted, she explains, the energy required to pursue an affair simply isn't there — and for many high-functioning people, exhaustion may be doing more to preserve commitment than intention ever could.

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Self
2025
Couples Therapy 5 'Acceptable' Reasons to Forgive a Cheater, According to Couples Therapists

Lisa Chen joins other couples therapists to unpack the complex emotional calculus behind choosing to stay after infidelity. She explores the conditions under which forgiveness can be a genuine act of repair — rather than avoidance — and what both partners must be willing to do for that process to actually work.

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Self
2025
Relationships Are You in a 'Scorekeeping Relationship'? Put the Whistle Down, Ref

Lisa Chen explores how the habit of mentally tallying perceived imbalances quietly erodes trust and goodwill in a relationship. She explains the psychological roots of scorekeeping — often tied to unmet needs and fear of being taken advantage of — and what it takes to shift out of a transactional dynamic into genuine partnership.

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Self
2025
Family & Relationships What to Do If Your Mother-in-Law Doesn't Like You

Lisa Chen offers clinical perspective on one of family life's most fraught dynamics. She addresses the psychological roots of in-law tension — including enmeshment, loyalty conflicts, and identity threat — and how to set limits that protect the marriage without escalating conflict or forcing a partner to choose sides.

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Vogue India
2025
Couples & Infidelity 5 Surprisingly Legit Reasons You Might Actually Forgive a Cheater

Lisa Chen shares the emotional and relational conditions under which forgiveness after infidelity can be a meaningful choice rather than a form of self-abandonment. She speaks to what distinguishes genuine repair from staying out of fear, and why some couples emerge from betrayal with a stronger foundation than they had before.

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Cosmopolitan
2025
Modern Relationships We're Approaching Peak TikTok Relationship Storytime Fatigue

Lisa Chen speaks to the psychological tension in oversharing relationship difficulties online without resolution or intent to change. She explains why audiences are beginning to disengage from stories that offer drama but no growth — and what this shift reveals about collective boundaries around emotional labor and voyeurism.

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Real Simple
2025
Habit & Behavior Why Starting a Habit on Wednesday Makes You More Likely to Stick With It

Lisa Chen explains how beginning a new habit midweek sidesteps the all-or-nothing pressure of a Monday fresh start. She speaks to why the psychological weight of Monday often sets people up to fail before they begin, and how a quieter entry point makes lasting change more likely.

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Upworthy
2025
Couples & Communication 8 Emotionally Intelligent Phrases That Will Strengthen Your Marriage

Lisa Chen shares how small, deliberate shifts in the language partners use can create meaningful change inside the nervous system — and inside a relationship's emotional core. She offers specific phrases that signal safety rather than threat, and explains why the words we reach for under stress are often the ones that matter most.

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Die Zeit
2025
Family & Conflict No Political Talks After 8 p.m.

Lisa Chen explains why political disagreements are increasingly threatening family harmony during the holidays. Featured in Germany's leading national newspaper, she offers guidance on setting firm conversational limits without rupturing the relationships underneath — and how to hold your ground without making it a referendum on love.

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SheKnows
2025
Relationships It's Not Just Jealousy — 6 Reasons Open Marriages Fail & How to Make One Work

Lisa Chen weighs in on the structural and emotional pitfalls that most often derail open relationships. She explains why agreements that look reasonable on paper can collapse under the weight of unspoken expectations — and what couples who navigate non-monogamy successfully tend to build into their foundation from the start.

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SheKnows
2025
Teen Psychology The Internet Is Romanticizing Male Yearning in Film — & Teen Girls Need to Know the Red Flags

Lisa Chen explains how certain portrayals of obsessive longing in popular media blur the line between romantic passion and unhealthy attachment. She speaks to what parents and young viewers should understand about the stories we absorb — and why the line between devotion and control is often invisible until it isn't.

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Good Magazine
2025
Anxiety Need a Reset for Racing Thoughts? Try the "Worry Window"

Lisa Chen shares how designating a specific daily window to process anxious thoughts — rather than letting worry run freely through every hour — can meaningfully reduce the mental load high-achievers carry. She explains the neuroscience behind the technique and why containment, not suppression, is the key distinction.

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Good Magazine
2025
Productivity Instead of To-Do Lists, These Successful People Leverage 'Done' Lists to Be More Productive

Lisa Chen speaks to the psychological benefit of tracking completed tasks rather than outstanding ones. She explains how done lists shift the brain's reward system away from perpetual deficit thinking — and toward a more grounded, sustainable relationship with work and accomplishment.

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Bustle
2025
Anxiety & EMDR "Butterfly Tapping" Is the Anti-Stress Hack You Can Do Anytime, Anywhere

Lisa Chen explains how butterfly tapping — a self-soothing technique drawn directly from EMDR — works with the body's own nervous system to interrupt acute stress responses and restore regulation in real time. She shares why bilateral stimulation is so effective and how anyone can use this tool without clinical training.

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Bustle
2025
Relationships TikTok's Viral "Train Station Theory" Will Change How You See Your Breakups

Lisa Chen shares how reframing a breakup as a natural transition — rather than a personal failure — can ease the grief of an ending and create space for genuine closure. She speaks to why the stories we tell ourselves about why relationships end have a direct impact on how long the pain lasts.

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Bustle
2025
Wellness Guilty of Overspending? Try Removing "Visual Noise"

Lisa Chen explains why simplifying your physical environment can meaningfully calm the nervous system. She connects the trend to broader themes of sensory overwhelm and why highly sensitive people and high-achievers are particularly vulnerable to environment-driven dysregulation.

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Bustle
2025
Friendship & Wellness This Is Your Sign to Have an "Admin Night" with Your Friends

Lisa Chen speaks to why tackling overdue life admin in a relaxed group setting can reduce anxiety and make the mundane feel far less isolating. She explains how shared context and social co-regulation make hard tasks easier, particularly for high-functioning adults who tend to carry everything alone.

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Bustle
2025
Modern Dating The Case for "Roster Dating" in Modern Relationships

Lisa Chen examines when dating multiple people simultaneously can reduce attachment pressure and support more deliberate relationship choices — and when it becomes a strategy for staying perpetually noncommittal and avoiding the vulnerability that genuine intimacy requires.

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Dazed Digital
2025
Modern Relationships "I've Given Up": The Reality of Dating for Young Women in Red States

Lisa Chen offers insight into how rising political polarization is fundamentally reshaping modern dating for young women. She speaks to why emotional safety and shared values have become non-negotiable for a generation navigating relationships in a deeply divided cultural landscape.

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AskMen
2025
Modern Dating Young People Are Exploring the Possibilities of "Stack Dating." What Is It, Really?

Lisa Chen examines the trend of lining up multiple first dates in rapid succession — when it genuinely offers clarity and reduces emotional weight, and when it becomes a strategy for staying emotionally unavailable while appearing to actively search for connection.

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Parents
2025
Teen Psychology What Does 'Mogging' Mean? How This Slang Term Could Affect Your Child's Confidence

Lisa Chen unpacks the psychological underpinnings of this teen social comparison trend — and what parents should understand about identity, status anxiety, and confidence at this particularly vulnerable stage of development.

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The Bump
2025
Parenting & Family What to Do When Your Sibling's Parenting Style Differs from Your Own

Lisa Chen explains why it is entirely normal for siblings to parent very differently even within the same extended family, and how to hold your own values without making family gatherings a referendum on someone else's choices.

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Reader's Digest
2025
Family & Relationships How to Maintain a Good Relationship with Your Parents as You Get Older

Lisa Chen highlights how understanding generational patterns and unspoken emotional needs can transform historically strained family dynamics into something genuinely mutual — and why this shift often requires grieving the relationship you wished you had first.

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Reader's Digest
2025
Sensory Psychology Here's the Real Reason Why Winter Air Smells So Good

Lisa Chen explains the psychology behind winter's distinctive scent and why cold, clean air carries such a powerful nostalgic charge. She speaks to the connection between olfactory memory, emotional regulation, and the brain's tendency to encode certain sensory experiences as signals of safety and home.

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Toronto Sun
2025
Relationships SEX FILES: Meet Phubbing — a Silent Relationship Killer

Lisa Chen speaks to how choosing a screen over a present partner erodes intimacy and trust in ways couples rarely recognize until significant damage has already been done. She explains why phubbing registers in the nervous system as a consistent signal of disconnection and low priority.

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Yahoo
2025
Grief & Transitions Getting Divorced Was Hard. Grieving It Was Harder.

Lisa Chen speaks to the often-overlooked grief that follows divorce — even when leaving was the right decision. She explains why the end of a marriage deserves to be mourned rather than minimized, and why many people find the emotional aftermath far more disorienting than the legal process that preceded it.

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Lisa Chen, LMFT
Founder & Executive Director · Lic. #140374

Lisa Chen, LMFT is a psychotherapist, author, and media expert specializing in high-profile executives, founders, and professionals navigating the psychological cost of success. With a background shaped by Harvard Business School and Wall Street, she understands high-pressure environments from the inside — and helps powerful people build lives that feel as sustainable as they look successful.

EMDR IFS Gottman IFIO Psychodynamic Somatic
Available for: Print · Digital · Podcast · Broadcast
Response time: Within 24 hours for urgent deadlines
↓ Download Media Kit 2026
As Seen In
Newsweek
Self
Bustle
Vogue
Real Simple
Cosmopolitan
Parents
The Bump
Die Zeit
Dazed
Upworthy
SheKnows
AskMen
Reader's Digest
Toronto Sun
Good Magazine
Yahoo
Vogue India

Known for translating complex psychological concepts into accessible, resonant insights — particularly around burnout, emotional regulation, and relationships in high-pressure environments.

Media Bio · Lisa Chen, LMFT
Media Inquiries

Available for print, digital, podcast, and broadcast interviews. Response within 24 hours for urgent deadlines.

media@lisachentherapy.com 213-537-9672

FAQs

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  • Lisa is available for expert commentary on executive burnout and nervous system fatigue, high achiever psychology, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, trauma-driven productivity, golden handcuffs and career transitions, EMDR, couples and relationship dynamics, attachment in high-performing partnerships, highly sensitive people, modern dating, and parenting.

  • Lisa Chen, LMFT holds a Master's in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She completed executive education at Harvard Business School and worked in investment banking and Wall Street trading before transitioning to clinical practice. She holds advanced training in EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Gottman Method couples therapy, and IFIO — Intimacy from the Inside Out.

  • Lisa specializes in high-profile executives, founders, physicians, attorneys, and public-facing professionals navigating the psychological cost of success — as well as high-achieving couples dealing with disconnection, burnout, or relational strain. Her clients are leaders who have achieved visible success yet privately face burnout, quiet loneliness, or the realization that their outer success has outpaced their inner life.

  • Lisa integrates psychodynamic depth with neuroscience-informed approaches including EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Gottman Method couples therapy, IFIO (Intimacy from the Inside Out), somatic approaches, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This combination allows her to work at both emotional and physiological levels — addressing not just what a client thinks and feels, but how those patterns live in the body.

  • Yes. Lisa is available for print, digital, podcast, and broadcast media. For urgent deadlines, she responds within 24 hours. Contact media@lisachentherapy.com for all media inquiries.

  • Lisa is the author of The Architecture of Intimacy™ and The Architecture of Us™ — a two-part series on emotional and physical closeness for couples and individuals ready to understand what intimacy actually requires. The Architecture of Intimacy™ is available at $27 via lisachentherapy.com. The Architecture of Us™ is a 26-page companion workbook with seven original frameworks, 14 exercises, and a two-week practice log.

  • Lisa Chen & Associates Therapy operates from two locations — Hermosa Beach and Los Angeles — and offers telehealth psychotherapy to clients throughout California and Florida. The practice serves the South Bay area including Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, and Torrance.

  • Yes. Lisa offers private executive intensives for leaders navigating burnout, major career transitions, or relational crisis. These structured engagements provide focused, confidential work designed for leaders who require discretion and accelerated depth — without the constraints of a weekly therapy schedule.

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Speaking Engagements & Guest Lectures

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Leadership and the Inner World

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The Inner Life of High Achievers

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The Psychology of Sensitivity and Strength

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Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) into Clinical Practice

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Introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Media Inquiries

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