Janina Fisher Ph.D.

Janina Fisher Ph.D. Janina Fisher is an international expert on the treatment of trauma and dissociation, a trainer for It has been a privilege to learn with them and from them.
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I have had the good fortune to have been taught by or worked alongside the giants in the field of psychological trauma: first, Judith Herman, then Bessel van der Kolk, and, most recently, Pat Ogden. And as much as these pioneers taught me, the most powerful and gifted teachers I have are my patients. These survivors have given me a window into the inner experience of the legacy of trauma, taught me what always to say and what never to say, helped to validate or disprove what the experts and theorists were claiming. We now understand that trauma’s imprint is both psychological and somatic: long after the events are over, the body continues to respond as if danger were everpresent. My professional mission has been to bring this understanding of trauma to both clients and their therapists as a psychotherapist, consultant, and trainer of clinicians looking for answers to helping their traumatized clients. I believe the key to healing is not just knowing what happened but transforming how the mind, body, and soul still remember it. Janina Fisher, PhD is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a therapist and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher has been an invited speaker at the Cape Cod Institute, Harvard Medical School Conference Series, the EMDR International Association Annual Conference, University of Wisconsin, University of Westminster in London, the Psychotraumatology Institute of Europe, and the Esalen Institute. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of research and treatment and how to introduce these newer trauma treatment paradigms in traditional therapeutic approaches.

11/24/2025

Attachment, Memory, and the Healing Power of Co-Creation

How does connection rewire trauma? Janina Fisher and Lana Epstein reflect on decades of friendship and explore the power of co-creation, memory reconsolidation, and embodied healing.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
👉 Watch now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXjnuw3Ws5w

The key is communicating a real commitment to the parts that, from now on, you will listen to them, take their fears ser...
11/18/2025

The key is communicating a real commitment to the parts that, from now on, you will listen to them, take their fears seriously, connect to them with compassion, and try to provide the protection and support they have been waiting for.

When we reclaim our lost souls and wounded children, befriend them, and allow ourselves to trust deeply felt compassiona...
11/14/2025

When we reclaim our lost souls and wounded children, befriend them, and allow ourselves to trust deeply felt compassionate impulses reach out to them and build bonds of secure attachment, they feel safe and welcome at long last. And we feel whole.

11/12/2025

In Spite of Everything: Jon Lee on Supporting Trans & Autistic Clients

What does trauma-informed care look like when clients are navigating real-time danger and systemic harm? Janina Fisher and Jon Lee share an honest, essential dialogue on advocacy, nuance, and care.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
👉 Watch now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIIL6S0t9Iw&t=256s

How do we “befriend” parts of ourselves? The answer is: the same way we befriend anyone. We show interest and curiosity ...
11/11/2025

How do we “befriend” parts of ourselves? The answer is: the same way we befriend anyone. We show interest and curiosity — we want to know what makes the other person tick — their likes and dislikes, fears and fantasies, habits and growing edges.

That means listening — really hearing this other being. To learn how to listen to our parts entails a radical leap of faith and a willingness to believe that our distressing feelings, thoughts, behavior, impulses, images and dreams represent communications from parts. Rather than assuming that shame is evidence of our defectiveness, we be curious about it:

“Notice that feeling of shame as the ashamed part trying to talk to you—notice what she’s trying to tell you. Is she feeling responsible for the angry part? Or is the judgmental part making her feel bad about herself? What is she saying?”

“If that dream were a communication from some part of you, what would that part be trying to say?”

As clients gradually increase their ability to befriend the parts, we can begin the work of developing internal trust and connection. Whether we are talking about our internal relationships or relationships with significant others, our attempts to induce others to change are dependent upon establishing trust and connection, and building trust and connection is dependent upon how well we “get it.”

In Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, as well as in Richard Schwartz’ Internal Family Systems, we “befriend” parts and gradually earn their trust by using mindfulness-based techniques focused on moment-to-moment awareness of the ebb and flow of thoughts, feelings, bodily responses and parts of the personality. Mindfulness helps us to increase the capacity for curiosity and interest, for compassion, for calm in the body, for dual awareness and perspective. A mindfulness-based perspective encourages noticing more than narrating.

11/11/2025

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching alongside my dear colleague, Dr. Frank Anderson.
His work beautifully bridges trauma, neuroscience, and compassion – and he brings such care to the topic of forgiveness in therapy.

If you didn’t watch his free webinar through the Academy of Therapy Wisdom on Therapy for Forgiveness After Trauma, you can watch the replay below. I know his insights will be deeply supportive to therapists who want to help clients release old burdens safely and without bypassing pain.

🔗 Join here: https://go.therapywisdom.com/t?orid=41101&opid=175


11/05/2025

Lisa Ferentz on Integrative Trauma Therapy, Self-Compassion, and the Art of Clinical Flexibility

In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friend and colleague Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA, for a warm, honest, and inspiring conversation about what it truly means to work in an integrative, client-centered way.

Together, we explore how healing is discovered—not prescribed—through relationship, creativity, and humility. We talk about parts work, somatics, expressive modalities, and why modeling self-compassion matters more than teaching it.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
👉 Watch now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZcPg9wchTw

When we’ve been traumatized, safety isn’t only about the present – it’s shaped by how our body remembers the past. Place...
11/03/2025

When we’ve been traumatized, safety isn’t only about the present – it’s shaped by how our body remembers the past. Places or situations that once felt dangerous can still trigger alarm, even when we’re now safe.

Triggers aren’t choices; they’re reminders. Healing begins when we notice them with curiosity, not judgment.

10/29/2025

All Parts on Board: Frank Anderson on Psychopharmacology, Parts Work, and Public Healing

Janina Fisher and Frank Anderson dive into trauma, medication, and the importance of collaboration – because every part deserves a voice. Insightful, personal, and full of heart.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
👉 Watch now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

Suicidal ideation is rarely, if ever, about wanting to die. Its intent is to make life bearable by giving the client an ...
10/24/2025

Suicidal ideation is rarely, if ever, about wanting to die. Its intent is to make life bearable by giving the client an “out,” a way of feeling some control over her pain and shame. Originally, it may have developed during the abuse as an attempt to tolerate the fears that the abuse would annihilate her: if you want to die, dying is not so terrifying. In adulthood, it is also a way of controlling the overwhelming fear and pain. When we reframe the suicidal ideation and impulses in this way, we can empathize with the survivor’s struggle: she longs for death as a way to live.

10/23/2025

In this powerful first episode of In Conversation with Janina Fisher: Wisdom Between Colleagues—Insights for Us All, I am joined by longtime friend and colleague Ruth Cohn, MFT, for a deeply moving exploration of one of the most overlooked forms of trauma: neglect.

Ruth shares the origins of her groundbreaking work on neglect – what she calls “the trauma of nothing” – and invites listeners to rethink the invisible wounds carried by those who, on the surface, report no abuse or violence. Together, Ruth and I illuminate how missing experiences, in addition to overt events, shape our relationship templates, emotional regulation, and sense of self.

This episode touches on:
◈ The origins of Ruth’s clinical curiosity about neglect
◈ Why “nothing happened to me” can signal a profound trauma
◈ Intergenerational transmission of disconnection and diffuse attention
◈ Gendered vulnerability in attachment and emotional development
◈ The survival strategy of caregiving in children with unmet needs
◈ The importance of attuning to implicit memory and early relational absence
◈ A compassionate reframing of “avoidant” clients and men in therapy

With warmth, clinical insight, and decades of experience between them, Ruth and I challenge the field to hold space for what has too often been dismissed: nothingness that shaped everything.

Watch the full episode now – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21kpE3IkFO8&t=2445s

The two "flavors" of disorganized attachment.The problem with disorganized attachment is that the child biologically see...
10/22/2025

The two "flavors" of disorganized attachment.

The problem with disorganized attachment is that the child biologically seeks closeness to the parent when alarmed and at the same time instinctively has the drive to flee or fight.

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My Story

I have had the good fortune to have been taught by or worked alongside the giants in the field of psychological trauma: first, Judith Herman, then Bessel van der Kolk, and, most recently, Pat Ogden. And as much as these pioneers taught me, the most powerful and gifted teachers I have are my patients. These survivors have given me a window into the inner experience of the legacy of trauma, taught me what always to say and what never to say, helped to validate or disprove what the experts and theorists were claiming. It has been a privilege to learn with them and from them. We now understand that trauma’s imprint is both psychological and somatic: long after the events are over, the body continues to respond as if danger were everpresent. My professional mission has been to bring this understanding of trauma to both clients and their therapists as a psychotherapist, consultant, and trainer of clinicians looking for answers to helping their traumatized clients. I believe the key to healing is not just knowing what happened but transforming how the mind, body, and soul still remember it. Janina Fisher, PhD is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a therapist and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher has been an invited speaker at the Cape Cod Institute, Harvard Medical School Conference Series, the EMDR International Association Annual Conference, University of Wisconsin, University of Westminster in London, the Psychotraumatology Institute of Europe, and the Esalen Institute. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of research and treatment and how to introduce these newer trauma treatment paradigms in traditional therapeutic approaches.