About Us

Meet Elizabeth C Mattia (Lil), MA, NCC!

Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC (She/They) is the owner of Blue Door Grove LLC with a masters from Northwestern University in clinical mental health counseling, and national certification through NBCC. She is currently in pursuit of her PhD in counseling education and supervision at Oregon State University, and maintains active memberships in national and international counseling associations including IBOSP, AASECT, AMHCA, ACA, CSJ, SAIGE, ACSSW, IARTC and ACES. Elizabeth founded Chi Sigma Iota Nu Upsilon Omega in 2023 with the help of her founding officers and CFAs, and is finishing her final presidential year as Past-President.

Elizabeth has held advocacy at her core for as long as she can remember, lover of all animals big and small, and draws much of her counselor identity from internal and external experiences throughout life. Prior to her career in counseling, Elizabeth leaned into helping careers such as ABA TA working with developmental disabilities and dual diagnosis where she specialized in aggression and non-compliance through public and private K-12 school systems. She has also worked in residential counseling, animal training and enrichment (CATEP certified), and food service for a major hospital while living in New York State.

Elizabeth is part of the LGBTGEQIAP+ umbrella through her sexuality and gender expression, holding research interests in death and non-death loss, human sexuality, and CIT skill development.

Therapy style

Elizabeth’s approach to therapy is rooted in psychodynamic theory with a touch of humanistic theories such as emotion-focused, existential, and narrative. She is sex positivite, kink positivite, poly/CNM/alternative relationship positive, queer theory, feminism, multiculturalism, and SAIGE. Essentially, she strongly values all things human-positive and offers space for all of those who have ever felt silenced.

Specializations and Certifications

Elizabeth specializes in the universal human phenomena of loss, grief, and love including death and non-death loss experiences, sexual and gender identity development and understanding, and traditionally marginalized relationship structures and populations.

She is certified in SAIGE’s Rainbow Level 1, PFA, CITI, and NBCC certified. She is currently in pursuit of certifications in Neimeyer’s Non-Death Loss and IBOSP sex counseling.

Publications and presentations

Upcoming presentations:

• ACES 2025: The Intimacy of Grief- Examining Consensual Non-Monogamy, Grief, Loss and the CIT Experience (Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC), poster session

Previous presentations:

• CACREP 2025: CACREP Program Liaison Support Series 1-4 (Dr. Gideon Litherland, Dr. Jennifer Jordan, Dr. Le’Ann Solomonson, Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC)

• SAIGE Conference 2024: Disenfranchised Grief and Psychosocial Loss Among Bisexual Identifying Adults (Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC)

• WACES Conference 2024:
  • Leadership Skill Development and Improving Masters Level Student Outcomes (Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC), poster session
  • Bisexual Erasure; Suicidality, Disenfranchised Grief, and Group Treatment Interventions (Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC), poster session

• CSI-NUO Summer Symposium 2024: Leadership Skill Development and Improving Masters Level Student Outcomes (student version) (Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC)

•  Grand Rounds Series 2023: Clinical Practices for Suicide Grief and Loss: Navigating The Complexities of Client Grief (Lila Lurie, MA CMHC Student; Elizabeth C Mattia, MA, NCC; Katherine Rodgers, MA CMHC Student; Gideon Litherland PhD)