Dr. Luizza earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) from the California School of Professional Psychology-San Diego in 2020 and completed her APA internship at the Los Angeles County Jail. She is a licensed psychologist in the State of California and is credentialed by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards and licensed eligible in all 50 states. As a doctoral student, Dr. Luizza trained at Alpine Special Treatment Center where she worked with patients on conservatorship; R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility where she treated and evaluated maximum security inmate-patients in general population, protective custody, and solitary confinement; and Sharper Future, where she received specialized training and certification working with male and female sex offenders on federal, county, and state probation/parole.
Dr. Luizza’s training focused on conducting mental health diversion evaluations, violence risk assessments, competency evaluations, criminal responsibility evaluations and psychosexual evaluations for municipal, state, and federal courts. Her areas of expertise include clinical and criminal forensic evaluations; childhood trauma; borderline and antisocial personality disorders; chronic relapse, impulsivity, and self-sabotage; high functioning depression; and relationship issues.
Dr. Luizza began her undergraduate career at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada where she studied criminal psychology under Dr. Robert Hare, Ph.D., the developer of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). She then moved back to Chicago and graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience. Dr. Luizza earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) from the California School of Professional Psychology-San Diego in 2020 and completed her APA internship at the Los Angeles County Jail. During her internship, Dr. Luizza worked with male, female, and transgender populations at Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood and the Forensic Inpatient Hospital at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles. Dr. Luizza provided treatment to inmates experiencing psychosis, mood-related issues, substance use disorders, trauma, personality issues, and paraphilias. She was supervised on two long-term cases where she conducted psychodynamic therapy to females charged with infanticide and provided on-call crisis intervention to all emergencies related to active suicidal/homicidal ideations, behaviors, and attempts, recalcitrant inmates, and gravely disabled patients. She conducted formal trainings on Suicide Risk and Assessment and Non-Violent Crisis Intervention to custody staff, other healthcare professionals, and newly graduated Los Angeles Sheriff Deputies. She also developed a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program tailored for females in custody and performed discipline review board and competency evaluations, violence risk assessments, involuntary hospitalization holds, and certificate review hearings.
Dr. Luizza is certified as an Associate Level Treatment Provider with the State of California Sexual Offender Management Board (CASOMB), and is certified to give the Rorschach Inkblot Test using the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) as she was trained and supervised by co-author, Dr. Donald Viglione, Ph.D. In addition, Dr. Luizza earned her fellowship from the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center and has experience providing long-term psychodynamic therapy to adolescents, adults, and families involved in the criminal justice system, and in the community. Dr. Luizza completed her forensic post-doctoral training at Todd D. Pizitz, Ph.D. private practice where she continues to work with defendants pre and post sentencing for drug and alcohol related offenses, violent, and interpersonal crimes. She works closely with private and public defense attorneys, family court services, the District Attorney’s Office, County Adult and Juvenile Probation, and Federal Pretrial and Probation providing court-ordered treatment and criminal forensic evaluations.