About Dr. Oliver

Overview

Dr. Lisa Caraway Oliver, EdD is an ACPE-trained healthcare chaplain, adult educator, and consultant whose work focuses on grief, bereavement, traumatic loss, and the human impact of catastrophic injury and death.

As Principal of Trauma & Grief Consultants, LLC, she provides research-informed consultation and expert witness services for legal matters involving wrongful death, serious injury, family-system disruption, and psychosocial adaptation following loss.

Her perspective is informed by doctoral research concerning death, dying, emotion work, and informal learning in hospice care, together with clinical pastoral experience in adult and pediatric Level I trauma centers.

For information about Dr. Oliver’s educational programs, community presentations, and speaking engagements, visit DrLisaOliver.com.

Education and Clinical Training

Doctor of Education (EdD), Adult Education
University of Georgia — Athens, Georgia
Research Focus: Death and dying, Informal learning, and Emotion work
Dissertation: How Do Caregivers Learn: Exploring the Informal Learning of Hospice Care Professionals

Master of Science (MS), Instructional Technology
Georgia State University - Atlanta, Georgia

Bachelor of Science (BS), Electrical Engineering
Howard University - Washington, District of Columbia

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE)
Level II-B Clinical Pastoral Education

Grady Health System — Level I Adult Trauma Center
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta — Level I Pediatric Trauma Center

Advanced clinical training in trauma, grief, bereavement, crisis response, and spiritual care in high-acuity healthcare settings.

These experiences inform Dr. Oliver's analysis of how traumatic events, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death affect individuals, relationships, and family systems over time.

Clinical Experience

Dr. Oliver’s clinical experience includes work in high-acuity healthcare environments serving patients and families confronting critical illness, traumatic events, complex medical decision-making, and end-of-life circumstances. Her work has included accompanying families facing pediatric critical illness, traumatic injury, end-of-life decision-making, and bereavement while supporting individuals and family systems navigating anticipatory grief, acute distress, uncertainty, and sudden changes in functioning.

Working within pediatric critical care environments has provided extensive exposure to situations involving attachment disruption, family-system stress, trauma activation, and the emotional consequences of life-threatening illness and loss. These experiences have informed her understanding of how serious medical events affect individuals and families psychologically, relationally, and functionally.

Dr. Oliver has worked as part of interdisciplinary healthcare teams alongside physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals to support complex patient and family needs within rapidly changing clinical environments.

Practice Perspective

Dr. Oliver’s work is grounded in trauma-informed and grief-informed perspectives that examine how serious injury, critical illness, traumatic loss, and death affect individuals and family systems psychologically, relationally, and functionally. Her approach integrates concepts from trauma theory, attachment theory, bereavement research, developmental psychology, and reflective practice.

Central to her work is the understanding that significant disruption often affects a person’s capacity for emotional regulation, decision-making, relationships, and meaning-making. Drawing upon the principle of regulation before meaning, her perspective recognizes that stabilization, relational safety, and containment frequently precede deeper adaptation and reconstruction following trauma and loss.

Dr. Oliver’s work further emphasizes reflective practice and disciplined self-awareness, recognizing that effective support and analysis require attention not only to the experiences of those affected by trauma and grief, but also to the assumptions, interpretations, and responses brought by the practitioner. This approach supports careful, grounded consideration of the human impact of serious injury, catastrophic events, and bereavement.

Trauma-Informed Care
Grief and Bereavement
Attachment and Family Systems
Reflective Practice
Regulation Before Meaning

About Dr. Oliver

Overview

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