Biography

For over 20 years Lisa Marucci has brought compassion, integrity and expertise to the benefit of her clients. Her non-judgmental yet challenging approach provides clients an opportunity to reflect on their life as a means to meeting their life goals. Beginning her career as a child therapist provided a solid base from which to develop her skills as an individual and couple therapist. The diversity of Lisa's experience allows clients to benefit from her knowledge to maximize their own potential.

Lisa is a master's level clinician with degrees from both the University of Toronto in the Masters of Social Work Women's Collaborative Program and an Honours BA in Women's Studies from York University. Also, Lisa holds a diploma from George Brown College as a Child Care Worker (now known as Child and Youth Worker). Her ongoing passion for learning has led her to pursue and successfully complete private psychotherapy training through Espritedu Training in Psychotherapy. Lisa continues to contribute to the development of her field by providing post secondary education courses to Ryerson University.

Recognized as an expert in her field Lisa has been sought out by the media on a variety of issues. For example, her opinions on child pornography were quoted in Macleans Magazine, she appeared as a guest on TVO's More to Life talk show on the issue of emotional infidelity in the couple relationship, and has been interviewed by numerous news broadcasters over the years. Additionally Lisa brought to fruition the successful implementation of Canada's first Child Advocacy Centre. Under Lisa's leadership The Gatehouse Child Abuse Advocacy Centre was named by the Office of the Attorney General as a Best Practice Site. Now the model is being adopted across Canada to the benefit of children and families affected by child abuse.

"The diversity of Lisa's experience allows clients to benefit from her knowledge to maximize their own potential."

Various workshops and courses have been delivered to the community. For example, her "Rediscover Your Wonder Woman" training has been met with rave reviews from participants. Her expertise in child abuse has benefited many community groups in ways to protect children and how to respond to this experience. To the professional community Lisa has developed workshops related to Vicarious Trauma in the Workplace, Responding to Child Trauma, and Child Sexual Abuse: the Experience of Boys and Men.

Lisa is dedicated to her profession and her community. These passions have coalesced to the benefit of the community with projects such as the coordination and development of Farah's Garden. Farah's Garden is a community based project that assisted the South Etobicoke community to begin to heal from the murder of 5 year old Farah Khan. This project assisted Farah's classmates to create concrete patio stones in her memory that were laid at the entrance of an abundant floral garden. A statue of a child and a commerorative boulder dedicate the garden to the memory of the young girl. Yearly the garden is re-planted by the community to continue the healing process and remember Farah's Life.