Lizza Chenven

Lizza Chenven completed her Masters in Social Work in 2006. She is currently pursuing her clinical social work license (LCSW). Lizza has provided treatment to youth, children and their families, couples, individuals and groups. She has experience working in settings ranging from outpatient to residential. In particular, Lizza has experience working with mandated clients who struggle with interpersonal, addiction, and criminality issues. She has worked predominantly with adolescent girls and adult women, though she also has experience working with adolescent boys and adult men.

Lizza began her career working in a residential setting with adolescent girls, and discovered her strengths as a mediator and counselor while working as an intern in a mental health outpatient agency. Her background is in both individual and group counseling services, with extensive experience running groups that explore changing thinking and learning skills for healthy coping.

Lizza believes that the clients she has worked with are capable of change, but have been disempowered and disconnected from knowing how to use internal and external resources to tolerate pain, cope with stress, make healthy choices, maintain healthy relationships, know their boundaries, and assert their needs.

Lizza works from a strengths-based perspective that is informed by recognizing where the individual, family or couple is in the stage changing process. By using motivational interviewing, she helps clients explore their ambivalence about change. Once a client is able to connect with why change is internally necessary for him or her, she explores with the client how to make lasting changes. This approach allows the client to be empowered, which contributes to a genuine self-motivated desire to learn healthier ways of living.

Phone: 503.839.1712

E-mail: lizzac@mhfcs.com