Dr. Audrey Lewis created EN+JOY Studio out of a place of deep respect for those seeking clarity and connection on how to live. It takes courage and discipline to explore identity and to discover hope. Dr. Lewis offers clients a personalized integrative approach to healing and optimal living. ‘To enjoy’ is to express inner joy outwardly. Experiencing life through this lens supports physical health, energy for creative endeavors, focus and clear thinking through inevitable challenges as well as confidence in both relational discretion and intimacy.
‘Enjoy’ is an action verb, so there’s movement, as opposed to the ‘stuckness’ experienced in trauma. Yet, beliefs and emotions that direct our behavior are both embodied beyond consciousness and held in parts of the mind not accessed in the same ways as our rational thoughts can be reached. The mind can turn the experience of sensation into the experience of pain, the experience of loss into extended grief and heartbreak, the experience of fear into terror and dissociation. Learning to ‘enjoy’ often involves a shift in the meaning attributed to life experiences where feelings and beliefs have been stuck in fear, anger and shame or their variations.
Our preferences are encompassed in our personalities; likes and dislikes are integral to voice and identity. Joy allows for and celebrates preferences so that dislikes can exist without the experience of threat. As our windows of emotional tolerance expand, joy emerges from growth.
Dr. Lewis began concentrated undergraduate studies in a broad range of fields in an effort to learn how people think. At the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, she studied metacognition and human behavior through government, economics, french, religion and music and studied opera intensely, performing in the Williamsburg community. She began law school at Southern Methodist University before changing paths and completing graduate studies at the University of Texas School of Social Work in order to move into the field of global organizational leadership. Surprised by her passion for affecting change on the micro level, Dr. Lewis embraced the clinical path and graduated with her MSSW-Clinical in 2008.
After several years privately counseling children and families, in addition to her position as the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist at Austin Child Guidance Center, Dr. Lewis left the agency and began in private practice as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She then received her Doctorate in Human Sexuality (DHS) at the Institute for the Advanced Studies of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, where she focused on the role of hormones in mental health, sexual trauma and in issues surrounding libido. Dr. Lewis also studied Vinyasa Yoga under Gioconda in Austin, TX and obtained her 200 hour level teacher certification in 2009.
Dr. Lewis has recently transitioned from a traditional psychotherapy private practice model under her LCSW license to a holistic, integrative model that allows her to utilize skills from her studies in yoga and alignment as well as insights from continued studies in the traditional therapy fields. She is continuing her training in yoga with Desirae Pierce at Breath and Body Yoga, towards her 500 level teachers' certification, a designation that allows for broad application of skills during sessions with clients as well as in workshops and retreats. Dr. Lewis has opted to practice therapy under her yoga certification licensure with accountability to the Yoga Alliance Board for this reason as opposed to maintaining her LCSW license with accountability to the Clinical Social Work Board.
Dr. Lewis is certified as an Advanced Trauma-Informed Hypnosis Practitioner and uses EMDR, guided meditation and alignment principles in her Relational, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy practice.
