Janina Fisher Ph.D.

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Oakland, CA
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.

12/12/2025

When all parts of us feel internally connected and held in the loving embrace of the body of which is an aspect, then they will feel safe and nourished at last. The first step is to become curious about this ‘other’ inside whom we do not really know.

12/10/2025

Enduring, Submitting, Surviving: Rui Cang on Trauma, Identity & Healing in Asian Communities

Rui Cang and I explore intergenerational trauma, cultural endurance, and the courage to find belonging between worlds.

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

12/09/2025

The key to the success of this technique is consistency, repetition, and a willingness to keep using it even if you have days when it does not work.

12/05/2025

What it took to survive has created a bind. It was adaptive ‘then’ to avoid comfort or self-compassion, to shame and self-judge before attachment figures could find them lacking, but now it has come to feel believable that others deserve or belong or are worth more – while, at the same time, it also feels that these ‘others’ are not to be trusted; they are dangerous.

12/04/2025

Who Decides What Works? Rethinking Evidence-Based Trauma Therapy

Wendy D’Andrea joins me to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice – questioning who defines “success” in trauma healing.

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

12/03/2025

Befriending Our Parts: Sowing Seeds of Compassion, focuses on interventions that begin a process of fostering the increased self-understanding and self-compassion so necessary for healing.

Asked to have compassion for themselves or to better care for themselves, most traumatized clients have a strong negative reaction. But when an emotion such as fear or shame is connected to the felt sense of a young child, the same client can often feel empathy or even indignation for that child. In mindfulness-based treatment, it is not necessary that we differentiate between compassion “for ourselves” versus compassion “for the child.”

The felt emotional and somatic sensations of compassion are the same, no matter who is the intended receiver, and it is those sensations of compassion that help to soothe and heal traumatic and attachment wounding.

11/25/2025

We often think of trauma as something that happened in the past—but for many people, it lives on in their bodies, beliefs, and behaviors every day.

In this rare collaboration, two of the most respected voices in trauma therapy—Dr. Janina Fisher and Dr. Frank Anderson—come together to offer a new perspective on trauma healing: one that doesn’t just revisit the story, but transforms how it’s held.

Through the combined lenses of neuroscience, somatic awareness, and parts work, this workshop will guide you in recognizing the living legacy of trauma and the survival strategies that have developed in response to it. Together, Frank and Janina will offer practical, integrative tools to help clients relate to these adaptations with compassion and curiosity, rather than shame or avoidance.

If you would like to join us, we’re offering a 15% discount as a gesture of thanksgiving:
At checkout, please use code: THANKS15

Valid through Monday, December 2 at 11:59pm ET

Get tickets: https://www.frankandersonmd.com/trauma-beyond-the-story

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

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.

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

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.

Address

5665 College Avenue, Suite 220C
Oakland, CA
94618

Website

http://www.janinafisher.com/

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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.