Meet Dr. Sisco, PhD

Trauma as a Focus

Meet Dr. Sisco, a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist who specializes as a crisis response therapist. Most trauma responders have an interesting path to the field and Dr. Sisco is no exception. In her formative years, she lost a brother to homicide. Yet she coped by helping others in similar times of need. So, she served as a political representative; homicide survivors board member; and a crisis mentorship supervisor. As such, she learned first hand about how people live with hard things, like poverty, gangs, war, domestic violence, untimely deaths, or the damage surrounding the drug and sex trade.

Simultaneously, at home, she watched her family struggle with combat-related PTSD. Thus, she developed a unique vantage point of surviving trauma. Because of this dyad, she embarked on a formal journey to help with trauma recovery.

In the middle of the chaos, Dr. Sisco was struck by the beauty of the human spirit and the strength that we develop when we experience the hardest of times.  In the middle of war, you find these really deep relationships that are complex and anchoring.  When you see a person give their last dollar for a friend to eat, the concept of humanity is just so raw.  Art, expression, and intensely emotional foundations for causes are other veins of beauty that come from the social pressure cooker.  Finally, a trust in yourself and a true understanding of what one is truly capable of only comes when the rubber meets the road.  This vantage point has given Dr. Sisco a passion for helping others understand the beauty in the journey and align with the inner voice.

Education and Early Career

Dr. Sisco pursued a joint PhD program in Clinical Psychology and Psychology, Policy, and Law as a result. She opted for clinical training in trauma-intensive settings including the Southern Arizona Veteran’s Health Center, Arizona Department of Corrections prison, University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, and Broughton State Hospital. Whilst in school, she worked at a restorative justice program for campus date rape. She continued on to complete her dissertation on the pilot of an online interactive sexual safety program she had developed.  This pilot later became the framework for the sexual safety orientation for Roosevelt University.  Dr. Sisco is one of the few in the field that work with both aspects of the interpersonal safety spectrum; she works both with survivors and perpetrators of interpersonal and sexual violence.

Activism through Teaching

Dr. Sisco then began teaching in 2003 to share what she had learned. She taught at Pima Community College, University of Arizona, Chicago Professional School of Psychology, and Roosevelt University.

As a teacher, Dr. Sisco loved teaching through doing and of course, this time in life is ground zero for a crisis recovery therapist. As such, during her time with Roosevelt, she created the Chicago-based BoutIt Mentorship Program for kids in crisis in partnership with Ulhich’s Children Advancement Network (UCAN). It allowed undergrads to work directly with at-risk, urban youth and learn about the theories in practice. Simultaneously, BoutIt was designed to help these youth explore their dreams, resources, and build a goal map accordingly. BoutIt was a groundbreaking first of it’s kind for kids overcoming severe abuse, acting out, and mental health issues.

Due to the multiple levels of her experience, Dr. Sisco has been recognized internationally for her expertise including presenting in the Tribunal Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has presented or published in 30+ professional venues regarding aggression, trauma, and recovery.  She has enjoyed this intensive career; however, she recognized the importance of honoring her own dreams while balancing her purpose of service.  She opted to step back from the front line to raise her son to be the next agent of change in the world.  

The Grotto Practice

As her career capstone, Dr. Sisco founded Grotto in 2022. Grotto has allowed Dr. Sisco to provide an environment that is healthy for trauma therapists and subsequently for our clients. She models the same safe and approachable values with clinicians and clients.  In addition, it finally feels like she can stop “fitting into a box” and just be the clinician she is.  It has been freeing to finally bring all of the professional and life experiences into this practice in a way that is helpful for a broader spectrum of clients and clients who are motivated to change.

With clinicians or clients, Dr. Sisco is warm, genuine, and can go from theoretical education to in the trenches examples in 60 seconds or less. As such, she is often sought for clinical supervision, mentorship, and complex trauma recovery. Complex trauma and big personalities welcomed.  Click here to book a session or contact us.

For a snapshot of overcoming a season of crisis, click on this Forbes article.