Lena Sisco knows when you’re lying. You may have seen her on the TV series Couples Court where Sisco’s been a ‘deception analyst’ for three seasons, but she’s also a former Naval intelligence officer and certified military interrogator with a built-in lie detector.

“I want to protect people,” Sisco said. “And I’m constantly developing tools to do it.” 

Couples Court With The Cutlers heard about Sisco’s work in the corporate world and flew her down to Atlanta to meet their team. Sisco only had one condition before joining the show: “If you are going to allow me to do my craft, and do it legitimately, then I will be more than happy to be your expert witness, but I’m not going to get up there and lie.” 

She has appeared on Dr. Drew and in Twist magazine assessing celebrity body language, and she’s been interviewed on radio shows promoting her book You're Lying. Which brings up an interesting question. How exactly does Sisco discern fact from fiction?

Sisco boiled her system down to four main questions for SPYSCAPE (see the full four questions and answers below). While her Q&A isn’t meant to be 100 percent accurate, Sisco uses it as a guide and employs other strategies taught in her training courses.

Rapport-based interrogation

Sisco has also developed what she calls a ‘rapport-based, non-accusatory, strategic interviewing method’ which she uses in corporate training and while teaching strategy to Virginia law enforcement officers, Navy Special Forces, NASA, and US border patrol security. 

Essentially, Sisco creates a safe environment from the start, offering a comfortable chair and finding common ground - that might be something small like a shared love of mint tea or something more emotional, such as missing a family member. Then Sisco reveals something personal to encourage even the most resistant stranger to do the same, building mutual respect and trust along the way.

While in the military, Sisco was sent to Guantanamo Bay, where she used her rapport-based approach in interviews with inmates: “I’m definitely not threatening and I’d smile.” Sisco said she doesn’t believe bullying or coercive tactics work when the goal is to uncover the truth.

“Maybe in Hollywood, but it doesn’t work in real life, that whole Mutt ‘n Jeff, good cop-bad cop,” Sisco said. “When you need - not just the confession, or where the next attack is - but when you need all of the details that go along with that, the person has got to want to be open and honest with you. “ 
‍
After months of offering up high-grade intelligence, one detainee told Sisco he confided in her because she was kind and he’d feel ‘guilty’ if he lied to her.

‍

Human lie detector

Guantanamo Bay is a long way from Main Street USA, but Sisco’s training straddles both worlds.

She grew up in Rhode Island, earned her MA in archeology at Brown University, and was digging up relics in Italy and Greece in 1997 when she decided to look for a new challenge. A friend suggested the military, noting: “If you can’t be Indiana Jones you may as well be James Bond and get paid for it."

Sisco joined the reserves at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and later became a certified Department of Defense interrogator. She was training to become a commissioned Naval Intelligence officer when she saw two jets hit the World Trade Center on television on September 11, 2001.

“Twenty minutes later, I got a phone call from my commanding officer and he said, ‘Get ready. Pack your bags because you’re going to war.’”

By 2002, Sisco was in Guantanamo Bay, spending half of her year in Cuba and the other half working in Maryland. When she left the Navy, she focused on military training contracts, eventually starting her own company. 

For the last five years, Sisco’s trained American executives who want to adapt field-tested intelligence methods to find an edge in the business world. 

“For any kind of leader or team builder, it is about genuinely knowing your people and whether or not they are truly motivated,” Sisco said.

She’s also coached sales teams: “If you want to know if someone is genuinely interested in becoming a stakeholder, or an investor, or a true buyer - and knowing their level of sincerity when they tell you they are interested in buying ‘X’ - then use my techniques.”

Lena Sisco has trained Navy Special Forces, the Joint Forces Command, and NASA. Contact SPYEX to learn how Lena’s expertise can improve your business.

‍