Lisa Lachlan, Ed.D.

Lisa Lachlan, Ed.D. is an educational psychologist and teacher turned Mindful Gestalt Practitioner. Her mindfulness practice started in 2005 with the transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. Before becoming a full-time Mindful Gestalt Practitioner, she was the Director of the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC. She holds a doctorate in educational psychology from Northern Illinois University and a certificate in Authentic Leadership from Stanford University. She has trained in the Neuro-Affective Relational Model with Laurence Keller, Mindfulness Meditation Mentoring with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and in Relational Gestalt Practice with Dorothy Charles. She leads mindfulness, meditation, and gestalt workshops and retreats in the United States and engages audiences across the nation. Her decades of experience as a leader and facilitator of groups, years of training in developmental psychology and gestalt practice, and her natural inclination to synthesize research, poetry, and spiritual teachings has made for an organic transition. She lives in the Monterey Bay Area of California and enjoys dancing, hiking and spending time in nature with family and friends.

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Why Mindful Gestalt Practice? 

Eight years ago, I found myself with an overwhelming need to engage with others in deeper contact. I was at a crossroads - many of my loved ones were experiencing severe mental health crises, as a result my marriage was ending, and my world was turning upside down. I was seeking ways to better understand the complexity of my life and needed help attuning to myself and my surprising life circumstances. I always thought I needed to process my pain and grief alone or in an office with a therapist. I cried for months on end wondering...Why is life like this? 

Then I attended a week-long workshop on Gestalt Practice and my heart and mind were opened to an entirely new way of living. I witnessed strangers supporting strangers with loving kindness and deep listening. I witnessed my mentor Dorothy Charles supporting a young parent grieving the loss of a child. I witnessed my own healing in the attunement I felt from the group. The present-centered awareness offered was a game changer. The palpable strength of the group field and the deep reservoir of presence showed me a new way of bearing witness to the raw emotions, the somatic experience, and the authenticity of each person's reality. I felt like I had found a home, a church, a new way of living. 

As a result, I embarked on a many years journey to where I am today. After that workshop, I began quietly using the tools and practices in my work as the Director of the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders. I used the language, the activities, and the processes to better understand and attune to my staff, my clients, and my family and friends. I joined dozens of Gestalt groups and completed a year-long study group. I began assisting Dorothy in her workshops, working to develop and support the Gestalt Practice Library, and started groups of my own with her encouragement. 

The winds of my career changed in 2025 as a result of federal budget cuts. I took the opportunity to lean more deeply into Gestalt Practice and offer groups to my colleagues in the federal and federal-adjacent workspaces. That work has now evolved into individual sessions, workshops and retreats focused on a variety of topics for wide-ranging audiences. 

My hope in leading these new groups is that it brings peace, clarity, and connection amidst the destruction, upheaval and change. I believe Gestalt Practice is deeply needed for humanity. Connection, presence, awareness, and attunement are key ingredients to support all of us toward healing, wholeness and transformative change. It is my greatest joy and hope to continue to share the Gestalt Practice and support its growth. Each person brings unique gifts to the practice and walks away with a little more present-centered awareness, a little more choice and trust, and a little more hope for humanity.