Dr. Lisa Gold
Relationship, Sex, and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist
“When you heal a relationship, you create a relationship that heals.”
— Dr. Sue Johnson
Love and connection are not luxuries — they are necessities. They are the neurological architecture of our lives. Transformational healing requires resetting the nervous system so we can reconnect to ourselves, our loved ones, and our lives in wholeness.
— Dr. Lisa Gold
My Work
As a relationship, sex, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, my work integrates attachment science, trauma-informed care, and non-ordinary states of consciousness to support conscious nervous system regulation and authentic connection.
I provide training and consultation to therapists, coaches, and medical practitioners on relationships, sexuality, the careful and ethical use of psychedelic medicine, and optimizing client outcomes through integrative care. I also consult with medical clinics and therapy agencies on effectively integrating psychedelic medicine into their existing treatment offerings.
Training Hubs: Arizona and Barcelona
As a trauma, relationship, and sex therapist, I have collaborated with other practitioners providing integrated treatment since early in my career. I founded The Arizona Relationship Institute (AZRI) in 2013 with one conviction that my clinical experience — and the research — has continued to bear out: treatment that integrates the mind, body, heart, spirit, and relationships produces the most real and lasting change. I continue to serve as AZRI’s Founder & Director of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy & Training, and AZRI is my U.S. training hub.
Clinica Synaptica in Barcelona, Spain — where I serve as Senior Visiting Consultant — is my E.U. training hub. There, I train therapists in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in collaboration with Dr. Philip Wolfson, Marc Aixalà, Dr. José Carlos Bouso, and other esteemed leaders in the field.
My trainings are deeply experiential. Practitioners move through the same process they will later guide their clients through — because no amount of theory can replace the wisdom of having lived it yourself.
Working with Clients
My current client work is focused on coaching and bespoke destination retreats — supporting clients through every phase of the psychedelic healing journey: preparation, facilitation, and integration. I continue to provide psychotherapy to clients I have worked with over the years, but I am not accepting new psychotherapy clients at this time, with rare exceptions in the U.S. states where I am licensed.
Drawing on three decades of experience as a trauma, relationship, and sex therapist, I curate transformative experiences shaped to each client’s intentions — weaving breathwork, meditation, somatic practices, time in nature, and pilgrimages to sacred and historical sites into the coaching and retreat work I now offer.
For clients who are drawn to it, psychedelic medicine deepens and amplifies this work — guided by my training in each medicine and its particular gifts. Some medicines require traveling to specific locations around the world to be practiced legally. Ketamine-assisted work is legal in the U.S., the U.K., and the E.U., as well as in many other countries. Although I am professionally trained in the classic psychedelics, my specialization is working with this most widely legal medicine, and over time I have developed protocols that produce results comparable to those of the other psychedelic medicines.
Soul Surfing
Soul Surfing — the approach to integrative healing I developed — helps individuals, couples, and therapists integrate the trauma-informed, attachment-based models of clinical care with the research-supported holistic practices that produce lasting transformation. I also created Soul Surfing Psychedelic Prep, an online preparation course and process group that supports clients and clinicians in integrating psychedelic medicine for healing, growth, and transformation.
I present my work regularly at professional conferences, including ASKP3, AASECT, ICEEFT, AAMFT, COASECT, EAPA’s World EAP Conference, and Mindvalley University. My peer-reviewed research on emotionally focused supervision and the psychological dimensions of infertility has been published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and The Family Journal. Across my early academic career, I taught at five institutions — Brigham Young University, Syracuse University (during my doctoral training), Virginia Tech University’s Falls Church Campus, Arizona State University, and Mesa Community College.
My book Ketamine Curious: How This Legal Psychedelic Medicine Can Transform Your Trauma into Healing & Growth, co-authored with Danna Skoy, releases Summer 2026.
What Makes Soul Surfing Different
Most approaches to healing focus primarily on helping people understand themselves.
Soul Surfing expands that lens.
Whether I am working with an individual or a couple, I am continually helping clients understand three interconnected dimensions of every relationship:
The Self
The inner world of the self — their thoughts, emotions, attachment history, nervous system responses, needs, fears, and protective strategies.
The Other
The inner world of the other person — understanding how their partner, family member, friend, or colleague may be experiencing the interaction through their own attachment history, nervous system, needs, fears, and protective responses.
The Relational System
The relational system that emerges between them — the dynamic that develops as two nervous systems continually influence one another in attempts to protect themselves from disconnection while simultaneously longing for connection.
The greatest breakthroughs rarely come from understanding only ourselves. They emerge when we begin to accurately perceive all three levels at once.
As clients develop this capacity, they stop seeing themselves or their loved ones as “the problem.” Instead, they begin recognizing the interactional patterns that keep both people stuck.
This shift creates compassion without abandoning accountability. It reduces blame while increasing responsibility. It transforms conflict from something to win into something to understand.
When people can accurately see themselves, see the people they love, and see the relational dance unfolding between them, they become far more capable of responding intentionally rather than reacting automatically.
This is why Soul Surfing is inherently relational.
Even when only one person is participating in therapy or coaching, healing does not occur in isolation. Every insight, every new way of regulating the nervous system, every corrective emotional experience, and every new pattern of communication changes the relational system in which that person lives.
Because relationships are living systems, when one person consistently changes how they perceive, regulate, communicate, and connect, the entire system begins to reorganize.
This integrative, relationship-based perspective is woven throughout every aspect of Soul Surfing. It combines attachment science, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic regulation, trauma treatment, emotionally focused therapy, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and neuroscience into a practical framework that helps people understand not only what they are experiencing, but why they and the people they love become caught in predictable patterns — and, most importantly, how to create lasting change together.
“The most meaningful transformations happen in relationship — with self, with intimate partners, and with a life consciously chosen.”
In Their Words
Reflections from Clients & Trainees
Reflections from the clients, couples, and trainees who have walked this work alongside Dr. Gold. More are being gathered with care and consent.
“I came to Dr. Lisa Gold weeks after an adrenal burnout left me completely depleted—exhausted and foggy, with energy, motivation, and joy simply gone. What I received in our ketamine-assisted session was nothing short of transformative. Lisa weaves Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Somatic…”
“I have truly enjoyed working with Dr. Lisa Gold, and I loved her Soul Surfing Psychedelic Assisted Therapy training! Dr. Gold teaches in a way that feels intuitive, wise, grounded, and clinically meaningful. Her training offers a balance of structure and flexibility, helping practitioners feel prepared while still honoring the client’s inner wisdom. One of the most helpful parts of the training for me was learning how to create a clear map with the client before the journey begins. This process supports trust, communication, intention-setting, and building a strong therapeutic container for the Ketamine Assisted Therapy experience. Having this framework has helped me guide KAP sessions with greater confidence and presence. I highly recommend Dr. Gold’s training!”
Credentials & Licensure
State Licensure
- Utah — Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CMHC)
- Arizona — Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
- Colorado — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
- Hawaii — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
Academic Training
- Ph.D., Child and Family Studies — Syracuse University (1998)
- M.A., Marriage and Family Therapy — Syracuse University (1997)
- M.S., Family Sciences — Brigham Young University (1995)
- B.S., Psychology — Brigham Young University (1993)
Certifications & Advanced Training
- AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists)
- ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) Therapist and Supervisor (International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy)
- AAMFT Approved Supervisor (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy)
- CIIS Certified Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist (California Institute of Integral Studies)
- MAPS-Trained in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
University Teaching
Across her early academic career, Dr. Gold taught at five institutions:
- Mesa Community College, Psychology Department — One-Year-Only Full-Time Faculty (2004–2005)
- Arizona State University, Department of Family and Human Development — Adjunct Faculty (2001–2003)
- Virginia Tech University, Falls Church Campus, Department of Family & Child Development — Adjunct Faculty and Clinical Supervisor (1998–2000)
- Syracuse University, Departments of Child and Family Studies — Teaching Assistant during doctoral training (1996–1997)
- Brigham Young University, Department of Family Sciences — Adjunct Faculty and Teaching Assistant (1993–1995)
Selected Publications
- Palmer-Olsen, L., Gold, L., & Woolley, S. (2010). Supervising Emotionally Focused Therapists: A research-based model. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
- Peterson, B., Gold, L., & Feingold, T. (2007). The Experience and Influence of Infertility: Considerations for couple counselors. The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 15(3), 251–257.
- Hart, C., Newell, L., Gold, L., & Sine, L. (2000). Proclamation Based Principles of Parenting and Supportive Scholarship. In D. Dollahite (Ed.), Strengthening our families: An in-depth look at the proclamation on the family. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft.
- Heart to Heart with Dr. Lisa — monthly column on relationship and mental health issues, Sonoran Spotlight Magazine (2007–2009).
Whether you are a client called to your own deeper work, a couple finding your way back to one another, or a therapist ready to expand the medicine of your practice — it would be my honor to walk part of the way with you.