Elizabeth Sullivan, LMFT

My family’s response to our time with Elizabeth included the word «magical.» In a situation full of potential emotional landmines, Elizabeth completely changed the dynamic of our family meeting and enabled us to focus on productive discussion. Her tone is almost misleadingly mild and loving, because you are so fully anticipating hurt feelings and angry words that you can’t believe that someone can cut the tension with empathy and positivity. Most importantly, she does this without invalidating everyone’s real feelings and experiences. She is not just a good listener but a good guide, and gives real reactions and advice that is succinct, keeping the focus on the participants rather than on herself (wow, I envy this skill!). She was realistic about what we could achieve in one session and she was quite accurate because those goals were well-​achieved with her help. It was tough wrapping up a limited time session with so much more we wanted to discuss, but she deftly shared a person reflection of her own that wrapped things up beautifully and with great meaning. Elizabeth is intuitive, kind, and insightful, and was a special gift to our family.

When I met Elizabeth I sensed I could trust her right away. She is kind and compassionate, asks the right questions, and brings depth to the conversation.
Elizabeth and I are colleagues and I introduce clients to her for individual psychotherapy and couples counseling without hesitation. And consistently, I get great feedback from the clients who have worked with her.
If you are looking for a psychotherapist you should take her up on her 20-​minute free phone consultation. You will be glad you did.

Elizabeth is an intuitive and highly skilled therapist. I have know Elizabeth for many years and have the honor of working closely with her at The San Francisco Marriage and Couples Center. Her clinical approach is engaged, direct and warm. I feel confident with her skills and years of experience when working with couples who are struggling with communication and intimacy. Her expertise is also working with couples who are new to co-​parenting children.
I trust her non-​judgmental approach to therapy and often recommend her to work with my individual clients who are having challenges in their marriage or relationship. I highly recommend Elizabeth for couples therapy and encourage you to call her for a consultation.

Elizabeth is an exceptional therapist – easy to relate to, warm, and super helpful. From the first moment I met her, I could feel her deep integrity and kindness. But beyond that, she is whip smart and so good at offering direct and practical guidance. I love her unique combination of intellectual, empathic, and intuitive intelligence. I cannot recommend Elizabeth enough as a therapist who will concretely help you improve your life.

I have known Elizabeth for nearly 7 years as a colleague and I am so pleased to recommend her. Elizabeth has the warmth to create a safe space along with the courage to get real. I am so impressed by the work she is doing with her clients around parenting issues. She is THE person I think of when I come across a parent in need of support because she gets it on a level that not many can comprehend.
Elizabeth leads a group for therapists who are moms, helping women balance the giving nature of therapeutic work with the giving nature of motherhood and find ways to take care of themselves in the process. I can’t think of anyone better to support women on this journey.
Therapist, mother, writer, editor, entrepreneur, conveniently located downtown, I have no doubt Elizabeth is the lady for anyone looking to transform their relationship to themselves and the people they love.

I’m honored to write this review of my experience working with Elizabeth Sullivan. I consult with Elizabeth on mothering, family and couple matters and she helps me think about ways to care for myself and those around me with more joy, honesty and compassion. She has a nurturing and warm spirit that is felt the moment you meet her. I would recommend Elizabeth to anyone who is looking to build a deeper connection with themselves, with their children, with their spouse, and with the world!

I participated in a 5-​week group for new (ish) mothers in spring 2011. I very much appreciated Elizabeth’s way of drawing on all of our experiences, so that we could hear a plurality of voices — a really useful way to help clear my head of shoulds/​coulds. In some way, I had expected that what I’d get out of the group was «The Answer», some simple, concise «Oh! That’s what motherhood in 2011 means!» but it was the variety of experiences that was so useful. I had also thought I was looking for people to identify with and so I was surprised that what served me most was hearing about experiences unlike mine; I found it comforting to realize how many different versions of mothering there are (and there was a lot that was said that I did identify with as well).
As for recommending Elizabeth to another mother, definitely. She created a really productive space (ew, that word) to focus on core questions and she did it with a lot of humor. It was interesting to find that just taking the step to come talk to her itself made me feel proud to be doing something to take care of myself. And I think that was one of her gifts — helping people identify what things they know how to do to care for themselves and helping them listen to others to hear what options/​ideas/​misconceptions/​expectations we’re all struggling with. She had us do several concrete exercises (with pen and paper)(and ridiculous colored markers and funny postcards she’d collected over the years) to think of ways to care for ourselves, to shift out of a mindset of feeling stuck or trapped and to look for things to infuse daily life with that are small and meaningful and might accidentally subvert modern motherhood and make us all feel a bit more human again :)