Member Highlight — Sipan Nazaryan, Student/Prelicensed

Lacey Morris, LMFT

Lacey Morris is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a specialization in expressive arts healing. Her passion for helping others began over a decade ago when her own mother was diagnosed with cancer. Following her mother's passing, Lacey began volunteering in hospitals, providing art therapy and running support groups for cancer patients and caregivers. She found a genuine love for helping people and decided to pursue a master's degree in expressive arts therapy at John F. Kennedy University in Northern California. The program provided her with a solid foundation in expressive art therapy while also offering a track to become a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Once licensed Lacey worked with couples, families, and individuals at a private practice in the Bay Area where she continued to run support groups for cancer patients and caregivers. Recently, she moved to the Calabasas area in Los Angeles and has an office for in-person therapy but primarily does Telehealth due to most of her clients being in the Bay Area.

Lacey is passionate about helping her clients through therapy and prioritizes building strong relationships with them.

Lacey stresses the importance of holding space and guiding someone to see different strategies. She believes that regardless of the type of trauma, people can make some drastic changes in their lives and heal. As a therapist, Lacey approaches the therapeutic relationship with her clients by making sure they feel safe and seen, establishing rapport, and building trust. She does this by being compassionate and creating a relationship from day one.

When it comes to helping clients set goals for therapy, Lacey tries to get very clear about short term and long term goals. This process usually takes a couple of sessions, and she has her own holistic-based intake form, taking things like a clients childhood into account. This process helps her understand her clients' childhood experiences, patterns, and other important details that can aid in the therapeutic process.

Assessing progress in therapy is essential, Lacey looks for whether a client notices patterns, accepts responsibility, and begins to make better conscious choices.

When it comes to self-care, she believes it's important to practice what you preach, which is why she meditates, does yoga, and goes hiking. Lacey is meticulous to stick to a set of rituals and practices to help her decompress.

One piece of advice Lacey gives her fellow therapists is not to set any expectations for the clients’ outcomes as the expectations can set you up for frustration and failure. She reminds herself that she is only guiding her clients in a gentle and compassionate way. She understands that some people may not make changes. Lacey's final advice is to try not to lose hope and strength for clients who are struggling.

Lacey has found that most people are ready to make a change once they seek therapy. However, when it comes to handling clients who may be resistant to therapy, she is still compassionate and patient with those who may be hesitant or resistant.

Lacey Morris is a therapist who is passionate about helping her clients heal and make positive changes in their lives. She understands the importance of building a strong therapeutic relationship, setting clear goals, assessing progress, and practicing self-care. Her advice to her fellow therapists is to approach therapy with compassion and without expectations for outcomes.

To get into contact with Lacey please go to https://www.laceymorris.com Or email her at
lacey.m.morris@gmail.com.

Sipan Nazaryan, is a therapist trainee at Child & Teen Counseling in Woodland Hills, working under the supervision of Kent Toussaint. Sipan is currently pursuing a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. He may be contacted at 818.452.3216 or Sipan@ChildTeenCounseling.org.