AN Interview with Lisa Goodpaster

Who Is Lisa Goodpaster?

I go by the nickname Tora or also known as the female bull. The divorce detective able to read unhealed emotions we are forced to travel with from kids to adults.  

Division proof Gen Xer grew up to flip the script while bringing hope and change. Keen wit and joyful spirit. When I’m not working, I’m usually laughing and if there’s music playing I’m dancing.   

Why did you start the Stephood Project?

I started the project to bring awareness of parental alienation and reach other survivors unaware of them. To ignite a positive movement forward towards parenting for our kids and generations to come. Co-parenting is so essential. Without it, any child can be led with years of trauma and confusion. This reason alone is why I started the Stephood Project.

What happened in your childhood years? 

My childhood was a living nightmare, alienated from my mother while staying silent to protect my dad. In the most formative years of my life, my mind was held captive by my stepmom as she erased my right to know and love both my parents. I took a daily hit of rejection while yearning for protection.

How Has that affected your daily life?

It was an end to a psychological forty-year nightmare. I thought I was just another kid from a nasty divorce. The truth - I had been surviving alienation in silence. Knowing what it finally was, it has set me on course to creating change on parental alienation. The destruction it makes on our families, our children, and our humanity affected me daily, and from time to time, it still does. Now knowing the whole truth, life today is a lot better.

What evidence do you have to support this?

The evidence resurfaced in a manuscript written by my stepmom and was used to erase and create a horrific narrative. According to the CDC and several psychologists, they have never seen such written evidence of hatred and programming towards a child. 

How have you recovered?

A soul awakening journey began with the guidance and support of the harmed little girl inside me. Once I knew what happened to me, I could do the internal work and learn a new way of being—using Neuroplasticity and somatic therapy. 

What are you doing now to maintain happiness?

I am embracing a new normal. The biggest lesson was a life-affirming gift, to fully embrace the truth. “I was not my patterns nor the lies I heard and read growing up." In my book that will launch later this year, I go more into depth about maintaining my happiness. But the short story is, after getting the help and talking to other alienated children, I found out I was not the only one. The community here that we are creating at the Stephood Project could very easily be the key to your future and the future of your healing.

What was part of your recovery process?

The Hoffman Process is a week-long healing retreat of transformation and development for people who feel stuck in one or more important areas of their life. Somatic Therapy, modern neuroplasticity, over 1800 hours of trauma therapy.

Lisa Goodpaster

Founder of the Stephood Project