Profile
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Lisa Schubert
Birth:
1984
Training Location(s):
Diploma, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (2005)
Cert., Postgraduate Center, University of Vienna (2014)
MA, Danube University Krems (2017)
Cert., Bildungsweg Zukunft, Vienna (2013)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Independent costume design (2006-2012)
Counselor at the association LOK - Life without hospital (2017-2020)
Psychosocial counselor at Mädchenberatung – Girls’ Counseling for sexually abused girls and women (since 2020)
Independent group practice for psychotherapy (since 2019)
Board member for girls' counseling (since 2022)
Career Focus:
Person-centered psychotherapy, psychosocial counseling for victims of sexualized violence, process support, feminist counseling for girls
Biography
Lisa Schubert is a feminist psychotherapist in training under supervision, as well as a psychosocial counselor at the Vienna Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Service for sexually abused girls and women. Together with her colleague Katharina Werner, Schubert is also part of an independent practice collective for (feminist) psychotherapy in Vienna.
Schubert grew up in Hamburg, Germany and joined the scouts as a child. The way in which everyone - regardless of their gender - took on the same tasks and worked together towards a common goal had a particularly formative effect on her later life. Schubert describes how this gave her a feeling of "I'm just as good as everyone else" from an early age.
In 2005, Schubert began studying costume design in Hamburg. For Schubert, artistic creation has a lot to do with equality and she enjoyed being part of a very diverse circle of friends. Over time, however, Schubert began to take an increasingly critical view of the superficiality and male-dominated domain of film and to ask herself questions about the meaningfulness of her work.
Schubert therefore moved to Vienna with the desire to study Psychology first so that she could then complete her psychotherapy training. However, once she arrived in Vienna, she realized that in Austria it was not necessary to study Psychology in order to become a psychotherapist. Schubert was driven by a "deep desire for humanity and connection and to meet people at eye level", which is why she began the propaedeutic course of psychotherapy training at the Postgraduate Center of the University of Vienna in 2014. During the propaedeutic course, Schubert gained knowledge related to various therapeutic approaches, but she realized that she felt most drawn to the lecturers of person-centered psychotherapy: "I have to say that I decided on a gut feeling [and] I don't regret it at all, so I feel extremely comfortable with the person-centered approach and am still very convinced of it [...] because there is actually no technique, but there are basic attitudes. And I work and meet people with these."
Schubert's explicit engagement with feminism also began in Vienna. Through her passion for blues dancing and teaching, she began to question gender roles together with female companions. Through this community, she got to know other women with similar views and the shared exchange furthered her feminist interest. Schubert notes: "I can't say exactly when I started calling myself a feminist (LS laughs). That somehow deepened further [and] I can imagine many people feel that way, so I always have [the] feeling that once [you] start, it never stops."
Alongside her education, Schubert entered the social sector via "detours" and completed additional training as a kindergarten assistant. She started working in an inclusive kindergarten with children with multiple disabilities and a school class, but as a "strong critic of the system", the limited scope for action and change in the rigid school system begins to make Schubert dissatisfied over time. As a result, Schubert started working as a counselor at the association Life without hospital (LOK) in 2017. Here, she was primarily entrusted with the care of people with schizophrenia and experienced more autonomy in the care teams of the individual residential units. After four years, however, Schubert realized that her care work was not enough for her and that she wanted to do more psychotherapeutic work: "and I had the feeling more and more that 'hey wait a minute, I want to be a therapist and that's different from care'."
In the fall of 2020, Schubert became aware of an open job advertisement for the Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Association, a girls' counseling service for sexually abused girls and women in Vienna looking for psychosocial counselors with a feminist attitude. Schubert was thrilled– there she could now "really have an active say, help shape and change things." Following a generational change within the Mädchenberatung in recent years, Schubert has also been on the board of the counseling center since 2022, which gives her a whole "different level of involvement". Schubert finds the organizational role exciting and considers it enriching to help guide the fortunes of the association as an employee on the board, as well as to be able to help shape its future.
In 2021, Schubert also joined a psychotherapeutic practice community and feminist practice collective co-founded by her colleague Katharina Werner. Schubert describes the "feminist left-wing work together" that they cultivate here as a great pleasure and completely in line with the history of the site they have been renting for the practice- after all, it is the former location of Stichwort, the Austrian archive of the women's and lesbian movement. Nevertheless, Schubert describes it as a greater "struggle" to openly display her feminist convictions in her own practice than in girls' counseling. However, Schubert is convinced that person-centered psychotherapy is actually very political at its core and "offers great scope for change". Schubert would therefore like to see that not only person-centered therapy, but psychotherapy in general, take a closer look at its own social responsibilities and "that therapists are aware that they not only support and heal people, but in my opinion also have a responsibility not to reproduce social issues, but to help change them."
Schubert feels very fortunate to work at the Girls' Counseling Service, a center with a feminist attitude and a feminist team. According to Schubert, working with victims of sexualized violence is very much about conveying a particular mindset, so she lives and works with "a certain expectation that things will change. And I very much hope that I can change things with my work and that, in addition to the support we offer women and girls who come here, I can also convey certain ideas of emancipation." Schubert tries to pass on the experiences of equality, strength and the right to justice that she has gained early on in the Scouts through her consultations and process support.
According to Schubert, her career decision also prevented her from experiencing discrimination; instead, her path was shaped by "strong women" and she learned a lot from "women who were simply the way they were." Critically, she notes a certain ambivalence in psychosocial work: on the one hand, she is proud of the important achievement of the work of the Mädchenberatung girls' counseling center and that this counseling center (still) exists. On the other hand, the psychosocial sector is mainly run by women, which in turn perpetuates female role models.
Even if, according to Schubert, equality is still a long way to go, she believes it is important to look back with pride on feminist achievements that have already been fought for and to support younger generations in their struggles with hope.
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Lisa Schubert
By and about Lisa Schubert
Schubert, L. (2023, 08. May). Interview by E. Rack [Audio Recording].
Lisa Schubert
Birth:
1984
Training Location(s):
Diploma, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (2005)
Cert., Postgraduate Center, University of Vienna (2014)
MA, Danube University Krems (2017)
Cert., Bildungsweg Zukunft, Vienna (2013)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Independent costume design (2006-2012)
Counselor at the association LOK - Life without hospital (2017-2020)
Psychosocial counselor at Mädchenberatung – Girls’ Counseling for sexually abused girls and women (since 2020)
Independent group practice for psychotherapy (since 2019)
Board member for girls' counseling (since 2022)
Career Focus:
Person-centered psychotherapy, psychosocial counseling for victims of sexualized violence, process support, feminist counseling for girls
Biography
Lisa Schubert is a feminist psychotherapist in training under supervision, as well as a psychosocial counselor at the Vienna Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Service for sexually abused girls and women. Together with her colleague Katharina Werner, Schubert is also part of an independent practice collective for (feminist) psychotherapy in Vienna.
Schubert grew up in Hamburg, Germany and joined the scouts as a child. The way in which everyone - regardless of their gender - took on the same tasks and worked together towards a common goal had a particularly formative effect on her later life. Schubert describes how this gave her a feeling of "I'm just as good as everyone else" from an early age.
In 2005, Schubert began studying costume design in Hamburg. For Schubert, artistic creation has a lot to do with equality and she enjoyed being part of a very diverse circle of friends. Over time, however, Schubert began to take an increasingly critical view of the superficiality and male-dominated domain of film and to ask herself questions about the meaningfulness of her work.
Schubert therefore moved to Vienna with the desire to study Psychology first so that she could then complete her psychotherapy training. However, once she arrived in Vienna, she realized that in Austria it was not necessary to study Psychology in order to become a psychotherapist. Schubert was driven by a "deep desire for humanity and connection and to meet people at eye level", which is why she began the propaedeutic course of psychotherapy training at the Postgraduate Center of the University of Vienna in 2014. During the propaedeutic course, Schubert gained knowledge related to various therapeutic approaches, but she realized that she felt most drawn to the lecturers of person-centered psychotherapy: "I have to say that I decided on a gut feeling [and] I don't regret it at all, so I feel extremely comfortable with the person-centered approach and am still very convinced of it [...] because there is actually no technique, but there are basic attitudes. And I work and meet people with these."
Schubert's explicit engagement with feminism also began in Vienna. Through her passion for blues dancing and teaching, she began to question gender roles together with female companions. Through this community, she got to know other women with similar views and the shared exchange furthered her feminist interest. Schubert notes: "I can't say exactly when I started calling myself a feminist (LS laughs). That somehow deepened further [and] I can imagine many people feel that way, so I always have [the] feeling that once [you] start, it never stops."
Alongside her education, Schubert entered the social sector via "detours" and completed additional training as a kindergarten assistant. She started working in an inclusive kindergarten with children with multiple disabilities and a school class, but as a "strong critic of the system", the limited scope for action and change in the rigid school system begins to make Schubert dissatisfied over time. As a result, Schubert started working as a counselor at the association Life without hospital (LOK) in 2017. Here, she was primarily entrusted with the care of people with schizophrenia and experienced more autonomy in the care teams of the individual residential units. After four years, however, Schubert realized that her care work was not enough for her and that she wanted to do more psychotherapeutic work: "and I had the feeling more and more that 'hey wait a minute, I want to be a therapist and that's different from care'."
In the fall of 2020, Schubert became aware of an open job advertisement for the Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Association, a girls' counseling service for sexually abused girls and women in Vienna looking for psychosocial counselors with a feminist attitude. Schubert was thrilled– there she could now "really have an active say, help shape and change things." Following a generational change within the Mädchenberatung in recent years, Schubert has also been on the board of the counseling center since 2022, which gives her a whole "different level of involvement". Schubert finds the organizational role exciting and considers it enriching to help guide the fortunes of the association as an employee on the board, as well as to be able to help shape its future.
In 2021, Schubert also joined a psychotherapeutic practice community and feminist practice collective co-founded by her colleague Katharina Werner. Schubert describes the "feminist left-wing work together" that they cultivate here as a great pleasure and completely in line with the history of the site they have been renting for the practice- after all, it is the former location of Stichwort, the Austrian archive of the women's and lesbian movement. Nevertheless, Schubert describes it as a greater "struggle" to openly display her feminist convictions in her own practice than in girls' counseling. However, Schubert is convinced that person-centered psychotherapy is actually very political at its core and "offers great scope for change". Schubert would therefore like to see that not only person-centered therapy, but psychotherapy in general, take a closer look at its own social responsibilities and "that therapists are aware that they not only support and heal people, but in my opinion also have a responsibility not to reproduce social issues, but to help change them."
Schubert feels very fortunate to work at the Girls' Counseling Service, a center with a feminist attitude and a feminist team. According to Schubert, working with victims of sexualized violence is very much about conveying a particular mindset, so she lives and works with "a certain expectation that things will change. And I very much hope that I can change things with my work and that, in addition to the support we offer women and girls who come here, I can also convey certain ideas of emancipation." Schubert tries to pass on the experiences of equality, strength and the right to justice that she has gained early on in the Scouts through her consultations and process support.
According to Schubert, her career decision also prevented her from experiencing discrimination; instead, her path was shaped by "strong women" and she learned a lot from "women who were simply the way they were." Critically, she notes a certain ambivalence in psychosocial work: on the one hand, she is proud of the important achievement of the work of the Mädchenberatung girls' counseling center and that this counseling center (still) exists. On the other hand, the psychosocial sector is mainly run by women, which in turn perpetuates female role models.
Even if, according to Schubert, equality is still a long way to go, she believes it is important to look back with pride on feminist achievements that have already been fought for and to support younger generations in their struggles with hope.
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Lisa Schubert
By and about Lisa Schubert
Schubert, L. (2023, 08. May). Interview by E. Rack [Audio Recording].