Lisa Dahlgren is a transformational psychologist, nature-connected guide, and thought leader. She is the founder of Sacred Journeys and the program Stewards of Peace. Previously, she served her community of St. Louis in private practice and has worked at multiple mental health hospitals and clinics. In 1989 Lisa founded and directed “Project Accept”. Project Accept (1989-1993) was an International Humanitarian Project that combined surgical teams from St. Louis, MO and Siberia, Russia to provide cleft-palate surgery for orphans in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. As a youngster Lisa was allowed to roam in miles of forest outside her home befriending the wild and learning how to speak with nature. She participated in her first solo quest when she was 12 years old and has been on numerous solo wilderness encounters since then.

In 2017, during a backpacking trip and while having a conversation with a mountain in Colorado, she heard a call to begin Sacred Journeys. That call entailed assisting individuals to connect deeply to themselves through mindful and profound encounters with nature for personal healing and soul awakening. Since then she has realized that this call is part of a global picture of transformation of healing humans as well as the Earth. 

Lisa earned a B.A. in Geology from Macalester College (St. Paul, MN), and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Washington University (St. Louis, MO.) As a young adult, she worked as a Wilderness Guide in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and for the State of Minnesota in the area of peat mining. After receiving her Ph.D., Lisa worked as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in community clinics, in private and state psychiatric hospitals, and was in private practice for more than 20 years. Lisa’s post-doctorate training is in psychodynamic therapy, and the transformational therapies of mindfulness, hypnosis, and Internal Family Systems.

In 2020, Lisa graduated from the Earth Based Institute where she was trained as a Nature-Connected Transformational Life Coach. She closed her traditional, office-based therapy practice in January of 2022 to devote herself to Sacred Journeys.

A natural empath, Lisa is sensitive to human, animal, and Earth energy. She has been attuned through Usui Reiki, and trained in a method of energetic healing known as Synergia. Lisa studies Shamanism through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. and offerings by Sandra Ingerman. She uses her empathic talents and energy work training in a variety of ways, such as volunteering for the BJC hospice in St. Louis.

Lisa is also a wife and mother of three children, who are now all adults. She is a spiritual seeker and has a religious base as a Unitarian Universalist. Lisa has a yearly ritual of going to the wilderness for fasting solo time. She values volunteerism and works to be an ally to Black Lives Matter, Right Relationship with Indigenous People, and the LGBTQIA+ community through social justice action and continued education. 

She measures her success through how many nights a year she gets to sleep outside.