Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 373: Trust, Science, And The Conversations That Save Relationships

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Dr. Lisa Eliason with Hidden Lakes Counseling a good neighbor?

Need a clearer path to a calmer home and a closer relationship? We sit down with Dr. Lisa Eliason from Hidden Lakes Counseling to explore how evidence-based counseling, sex therapy, and a coordinated team approach can turn messy patterns into workable plans. From couples on the brink to families juggling child behavior, anxiety, and intimacy challenges, we map the real tools that move people forward without judgment or jargon.

Lisa shares her journey into couples counseling and certified sex therapy, and we dig into the biggest myths that keep people from seeking help—like the belief that love should come naturally or that therapy is just criticism. We unpack what sex therapy actually looks like: talk-based sessions addressing desire differences, pain disorders, erectile dysfunction, performance anxiety, and the emotional threads that make or break physical connection. The conversation is practical and candid, grounded in research and delivered with empathy for couples who feel unsure, private, or overwhelmed.

What sets Hidden Lakes apart is the power of a 13-expert team under one roof. Need play therapy for a child while you work on conflict in your marriage? Want medication support alongside anxiety treatment that’s affecting your sex life? This integrated model helps families access the right specialist at the right time—without starting from scratch. Lisa also shares three cornerstone skills that change the tone at home fast: how to call a timeout before things spiral, how to use an “I feel” statement that lands, and how to listen so your partner feels understood. She’s even posted free videos to help you practice between sessions.

If you’re ready to replace guesswork with guidance, this conversation offers a roadmap: clearer language, smarter boundaries, and a team that can connect the dots across mental health, intimacy, and family life. Listen, share with someone who needs it, and subscribe for more conversations that make help feel closer than you think. If the episode resonated, leave a review and tell us which skill you’ll try first.

 To learn more about Hidden Lakes Counseling, go to
 🔗 https://www.hiddenlakescounseling.com/counselors-3/lisaelieson/

Hidden Lakes Counseling

817-854-3201 ext. 702


SPEAKER_02:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a counselor? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Dr. Lisa Eliason with Hidden Lakes Counseling. Dr. Lisa, how are you today?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good. Thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, now we are excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you start off by telling our listeners just a little bit about your company and your backstory?

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. Now, Hidden Lakes Counseling is we have an in-person office several in Keller, but we do online counseling across the nation in different, depending on licensure of different therapists. But essentially we have a team of 13 counselors with all different specialties. And I mean, from we have a nurse practitioner who does medication, we have play therapists, we have a sports counselor, which is pretty interesting. Specialties in couples, anxiety, depression, just the gambit of things because we have such a big team of counselors. We can address lots of issues. My specialty in particular is I work with couples and sex therapy. So I have the coolest fun job where I get to talk about sex all day, which is pretty cool. That is essentially what Hidden Likes Counseling does.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, how did you originally get into this business? And why was this your chosen area of expertise?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I, you know, I I discovered about myself pretty when I was in college, pretty young, that I love the study of human behavior. I love talking to people and where those places merge, of course, is in the counseling office. In particular, I ended up in couples counseling because I came out of Texas Women's University with my master's. And if you've been over there at TWU, you know they talk about family a lot in their counseling program and couples work. If you're talking about women especially, then you're also talking about the families they operate in. So I worked for couples for a decade before I just concluded that when I have couples in session, often they're fighting about sex as a part of that conversation. So I went back and did the extra education to get to become a certified sex therapist. And now I'm also training counselors in the field and teaching quite a bit too, on top of that. So um, but yeah, I noticed that especially the niche I'm in, I often work with a lot of conservative couples who might be afraid to come and get help for sexuality. And so they come into my office and I felt like I may be the only person that they talk to about what's really happening to them as a couple. And I felt if I'm gonna be that person they trust, I need to have good science and good information to share with them to really help those relationships come together and improve for both of them. So that's why I went and did the extra work so that I can help for those people who trust me with so much personal information.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, I can already tell this is gonna be an interesting conversation today, but what is the most common myth or misconception in your industry when it comes to this subject?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'll give you two of them. Because I think counseling in general, one of the myths with counseling, well, maybe a couple of them are there's lots, but is I think people become afraid to come to counseling because they're afraid it's just gonna be criticism and beating them up emotionally and really negative. And I think when they get into counseling with a good counselor who's has training and experience, they find that counselor actually is positive about them and wants to take and develop their strengths to overcome things that are causing them stress. They don't, I guess counselors are training is to give them new ideas to face challenging problems they hold. Um I think the there's sometimes some myths that people might have that we should just be born knowing how relationships work and knowing how to make ourselves happy. And the truth is that there's actual science and research that goes into the patterns of behavior that make things work more easily. And so I think instead of trying to fix it ourselves the hard way, go talk to those people who studied it for years and have really looked at patterns of behavior that can improve in a positive direction. Um now, as a sex therapist, you can imagine a lot of people ask me what is sex therapy, and they often confuse it with thinking we're just gonna talk about sexual addiction. And it's more than that. It's it's talking about um what's probably the most common in my office is desire differences in couples or sometimes pain disorders that might be making sex difficult or erectile dysfunction issues, um, or even just emotional connection in couples. So I think a lot of people get nervous to come to a sex therapist because they think, oh, that's weird, what are we gonna do? And they get you know kind of scared of that. Well, like trust me, sex therapy is only talk therapy. There will be no no nakedness or anything to get nervous about. But again, understanding what's in the literature, especially between genders that are common differences that people struggle with that we really just don't talk about culturally enough.

SPEAKER_01:

Most definitely, most definitely. Well, and I think emotions link to intimacy a lot, a lot more than people give credit to. And I think that's really the heart a lot of the times of the issues.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now we know marketing is the heart of every business. We already know who are your target uh clients. So who is your target audience? And in terms of marketing, how do you attract them?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, gosh, we have lots of different directions we go with marketing. I mean, like I said, I have 13 counselors with 13 different specialties that hidden links counseling. So, you know, we have some different advertising things we do, different speaking engagements we do. Um, certainly the word of mouth of our prior prior clients has been hugely beneficial in the networks and relationships we build. Um, so you know, while my specialties couples and sex therapy, there's some fascinating specialties, like, you know, like I said, we have that sports counselor. We even have a counselor who's who understands adventure therapy and how to go and do fun things as a part of a therapeutic process. So lots of diverse perspectives. And the beauty of having such a cool team that we work with is like if I'm working with a couple and they have an issue with their child, well, I got to play therapist right across the hall. We can go pull them in and work together as a team to solve that. Or hey, this person's struggling with depression and that's making their sex life difficult. I got a person across the hall who's who can prescribe medication and get us started on how do we work as a team to confront the issues that families are having. Um, so you know, we kind of are all marketing different places. You'll see people from my office speaking in different events for different specialties, you know, all the time. So marketing is quite a big process. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, have you ever thought about having your own podcast?

SPEAKER_00:

Um occasionally. I do have uh a little bit on YouTube. I do have a Facebook following that I put my videos on nowadays for training. I have a couple books out there on Amazon. So um anybody wants to follow me on Facebook, it's at Dr. Eliason. And so, and my my name is on Amazon. So um, yeah, so I don't think I've gotten as great as you have, Sophia, structuring a great podcast with ongoing episodes. That's certainly that takes a lot of work in and of itself to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, um, outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?

unknown:

For fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, we've already established my favorite thing is to study human behavior. This is literally most of the things I read and study is this. But if I go non-work related, well, I like reading for fun, I still like reading no matter where I am. Love time with family, love writing. Um, travel is one of my big passions. So I've been fortunate enough to see large and interesting parts of the world. Um so love working on projects at home and you know, time at home too. Um certainly with the holidays, it was great to have time with all my family here recently. So yeah, it's kind of you know, it's kind of odd. I think it makes it easy to do my job because I have always been passionate about studying human behavior and there's an endless supply of things to learn and study. So a lot of times my work doesn't feel like work because I think it's so fascinating.

SPEAKER_01:

And in your section of study, being in this field, how have you found it's benefited you most in your own personal life having this knowledge, right? This wealth of knowledge that people don't just have access to without looking for the resources.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Um, certainly that's and then maybe that's one of the things that brings me such joy to study in this arena because not only can I use it at work, but I can go use it at home. And I had three kids and I've been married for a bajillion years now. And it's like to see that we can take these very principles I study and use my clients, and I can come home and and talk about them with my family and use them there. And and now to see my daughter has recently gotten married and see her take those same great skills into her new family and learning how to communicate and talk about feelings in a in a way that doesn't become argumentative, but actually helps them problem solve together and work as a team. So certainly huge in our family to to watching my kids be able to tell me how they feel as they're growing up instead of just acting it out with behavior issues, you know. So always applicable at home.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. And what is the secret for anyone who looking to have a long-term exclusive committed relationship to having that work in all areas?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, if it well, if there were one secret I'd put in five minutes, I wouldn't have a job. So you literally just said take 30 years of your life work and condense it down to a little sound bite. So probably if I was going to give you a short version, I find pretty much every relationship, almost every couple, every you know, family that I'm working with, I have to teach them some basic communication skills before we can really start working on the issues in the system to fix them. So if I could probably give every couple just a gift, which I guess I already have, of knowing that there's three basic communication skills, how to take a timeout, how to do an I feel statement, and how to listen well. And I found I almost have to teach them like in every session over the years. And so I just started a little bit ago putting them on YouTube for free. They're just out there for free. So I guess if I were to say if I could gift the world something, it would be those three basic skills. And I guess I kind of did by putting it on YouTube for free. Because um, I found in session it was easier to say, hey, we need to know how to do an IPL statement so we can use them in session. And so I recorded it so I could make that academic piece happen at home and tell my clients, go home, listen to this, come back, we're gonna use this skill. Save us all time in session and use our use our time when we're together most efficiently. So that is out there also. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And where can our listeners go to learn more about Hidden Lakes Counseling?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we have we're on the internet at uh Hidden Lakes Counseling. The website's hidden lakescounseling.com. We're on Facebook, Hidden Lakes Counseling. Um, probably the best places to look there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, well, Dr. Lisa, I really appreciate you being on the show today. We wish you and your business the best moving forward. Sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Great to meet everybody. Thank you, Sophia.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Frisco dot com. That's GMP Frisco dot com or call four six nine two two one nine three four four four four four five.