Hi, I’m Dr. Lisa Goldman.
I’m an Arizona-based board-certified psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
I work best with thoughtful, intellectually curious adults who want care that’s personal, collaborative, and un-rushed.
My approach
In short, I offer psychiatry for smart people.
I don’t separate “med management” from psychotherapy. Some people need both: a clear understanding of what’s happening, practical perspective, and (when appropriate) careful prescribing.
As I sometimes say: Nobody ever got better just because they started taking pills.
We’ll focus on the whole person — not a checkbox diagnosis.
What I treat
Across all of the people I serve, I most often help with:
- Depression (including bipolar spectrum)
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- ADHD
- Life stress: work, relationships, grief, divorce, major transitions
What makes this practice different
- I listen deeply and ask precise questions
- I explain what I’m thinking (physician-teacher style)
- We go for the safest, least harmful, most effective options we can find
Practical details
- Telepsychiatry only
- Arizona patients (Colorado in process)
- Private pay (I don’t take insurance)
A note on fit
If you’re looking for rushed, checklist-style care, I’m not your person.
If you want thoughtful psychiatry with depth — where you’re treated like a human — you’re in the right place.
More About Dr. Goldman
Dr. Lisa Goldman is a psychotherapist and board-certified psychiatrist in Arizona who enjoys discovering people’s strengths and hidden talents. She’s the founder of Whole Human Psychiatry, an independent private practice dedicated to thoughtful, individualized mental health care.
With more than three decades of experience as a mental health provider, her multidisciplinary background spans social work, psychotherapy, and medical science. Her approach honors the complexity of each person’s lived experience.
A board-certified psychiatrist in Arizona who chose independence
In 2018, Dr. Goldman established Whole Human Psychiatry so she could serve patients directly, rather than as an employee of a large corporation. After years in the continuous grind of “conveyor belt medicine,” she chose an insurance-free private practice model that allows unhurried, relationship-centered care.
As a medical student, psychiatry felt like a “home planet”—a place where she could actually see, hear, and feel her patients as people (not just compare numbers on a screen). Patients liked her, trusted her, and often preferred her over doctors who had little time to truly get to know them.
What it’s like to work with Dr. Goldman
Working directly for her patients allows Dr. Goldman to spend her time doing what she loves most:
- Listening carefully
- Solving problems collaboratively
- Using both logic and intuition
- Supporting long-term growth as people become more authentically themselves
Integrative care: psychotherapy-informed psychiatry + careful prescribing
Her practice integrates:
- Comprehensive psychiatric evaluation
- Patient-specific psychotherapy
- Trauma-informed care
- Medication management (when appropriate)
Dr. Goldman pays close attention to the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions that influence mental health. By intentionally maintaining a small patient panel, she’s able to offer highly attentive, collaborative, and personalized care.
Outside the office
Dr. Goldman finds deep meaning in her work and considers psychiatry to be the fulfillment of her life’s purpose. Outside her professional life, she enjoys quiet time alone or with close friends.
She tends a small flock of pet chickens (each with a name and personality), enjoys desert gardening, cooking, writing, and following deep-thinking podcasts. Her highly relational dog, Luna, sometimes attends visits—quietly in the background, with impeccable confidentiality.
Personal story: roots, resilience, and an unconventional path
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (and learning to be an outsider)
Dr. Goldman grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where exploring the outdoors shaped her appreciation for the beauty and resilience of the natural world. She collected frogs and salamanders as pets, and late-summer blackberry picking was a seasonal ritual.
Her family relocated to the Southwest during adolescence, where she experienced the trials of being an outsider. In 10th grade, being identified as a gifted student allowed her to transfer to a magnet school—where she found her people among rebellious, artistic “weird kids.” She graduated early and moved to Seattle to continue her education.
Education: art, history, travel, and a widening view of suffering
After a brief and unsuccessful semester in art school, she re-enrolled at The Evergreen State College and graduated in 1985 with multiple majors in History, Political Economy, and Fine Art.
Between semesters, she traveled through Southern Mexico and Central America—by trains and chicken buses, alone or with friends. She studied immersion language courses, visited rural villages, and painted watercolor scenes of landscapes and people. These experiences exposed her to both the beauty of wild natural places and the cruelty of poverty, violence, natural disasters, and preventable illness—deepening her commitment to alleviating human suffering.
Social work and psychotherapy training
Dr. Goldman earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University and began her career as a psychotherapist. She pursued advanced training in:
- Solution-focused therapy
- Structural and strategic family therapy
- Imago relationship therapy
For five years, she worked with children in foster care at the Arizona Children’s Home, building expertise in attachment theory, trauma, and the lasting impact of early childhood experiences on mental health.
Medicine and psychiatry: returning to school at 39
After years in clinical practice, she felt called to expand her ability to help patients through medicine. At age 39, she entered medical school—often the oldest student in her class.
She earned her MD from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, where she received clinical distinction for commitment to underserved people. As a medical student translator, she completed more than 270 hours of volunteer service for clinics serving Spanish-speaking people in Southern Arizona and the rural highlands of Guatemala.
Residency + board certification
Dr. Goldman completed her psychiatry residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis and is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Today, she blends the depth of her psychotherapy background with the scientific tools of modern psychiatry. Her work is grounded in thoughtful, compassionate, multi-dimensional care—combining psychotherapy with careful, highly individualized psychiatric prescribing.