Meet Alisa Jaffe Holleron

My Approach to Therapy and Life

I believe that the challenges we face are not failures; rather they are opportunities to grow and mature into ourselves. I specialize in relationship work, couples work, divorced co-parenting issues, family relationship work, emotions work (anger issues, anxiety and grief) and individual self-growth, including life transitions. Through my work with high-conflict divorced co-parenting, I have developed tolerance, patience, compassion and skill for working with difficult and challenging relationship dynamics.
 
I emphasize mindfulness, acceptance, self-compassion and emotional intelligence in my work with individuals, couples, families and co-parents. I approach my work with a unique blend of pragmatism, cultivation of self-understanding and skill building focused on cultivating emotional intelligence and working with difficult emotions. 
 
Being human is a challenging adventure! I have great compassion for our struggles. I have been told that my open-mindedness, humor and accepting style puts clients quickly at ease. 

Divorced Co-Parenting Specialty 

Becoming a co-parenting teacher, author, expert, therapist began with my own experience. I know first-hand that parenting after divorce can be incredibly difficult and painful. I also know that a lot of the material available for difficult co-parenting only addresses the complicated issues of divorce on a surface level. I have dedicated myself to providing co-parenting help that addresses the deeper emotional issues, and provides ways of thinking and co-parenting tools that will not only be helpful with co-parenting, but will also improve the rest of your life.

I have been teaching “in-person” divorced co-parenting classes for almost fifteen years.  What I continue to see is the inextinguishable human spirit, the desire to grow, to love, to connect, to become the better person for the sake of the children who will inherit our world and carry on our legacy.

My own experience, the experience of my co-parenting students, and an intense desire to study and learn new ways of helping parents after divorce helped me develop a unique and powerful approach to divorced co-parenting. This approach is the basis for my curriculum and my book An Unexpected Journey: The Road to Power and Wisdom in Divorced Co-Parenting.  I developed the online class to reach co-parents that don’t live close by! I also teach my approach to other professionals all over the country. 

 Things WILL Get Better

Ultimately what I have learned is that the things that challenge us are opportunities in disguise. If we meet this these challenges with an open mind and heart, and a willingness to grow, things WILL get better. We will find more love, more connection, more meaning, more joy. This is the truth of my experience and the experiences of the many many men and women who have taken this journey with me.

Education and Experience

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in both Illinois (License #149.020136) and California (License # 24452). I earned my Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jane Addams School of Social Work, and my Bachelors degree from The University of Kansas. I have worked for several different agencies in my long career in social services and have worked with many different populations. In 2008, I opened the Live Oak Center for Psychotherapy and Education in El Dorado Hills, California where I taught my classes and worked with divorced co-parenting couples, couples and individuals. I closed Live Oak Center in 2019 and relocated to the Chicago area, where I was born and raised and lived many years of my adult life. I offer therapy and classes at my office in Downtown Evanston.

Published Articles

4 Tips to Make Co-Parenting
With Your Ex Much Easier
March 9, 2015

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Parental Anger:
Mindfulness and Letting Go
June 5, 2012

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Divorce And Remarriage: How I Stopped Hating My Ex’s New Wife
October 5, 2012

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Thank You Barbara
for Being My Teacher!
April 10, 2009

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