I'm Leighanna (Lay-on-uh)! It's a pleasure to meet you!
My Approach I believe all human behavior is intended to produce positive consequences. This belief allows me to approach my clients with compassion and an open heart, even when they come to therapy reporting problem behaviors or ill-adapted patterns.. I do my best to create a comfortable space so my clients do not feel the need to put on a performance or hide who they are. This means that in my virtual office, anything goes; swearing, crying, and venting are always welcome and can be important to the therapeutic process.
I also do my best to minimize power dynamics in the therapeutic relationship. You can count on me to view you as an expert in your life. This means I will include your thoughts and ideas in your treatment plan, rather than just pulling from my own experiences.
My Story Becoming a therapist was an unexpected addition to my to-do list when I was about to graduate with my Bachelor's degree from CSU. I knew I wanted to do something in the field of sexual psychology, but couldn’t quite place my finger on what. I consulted with my favorite professor, who suggested I take a class called Basic Counseling Skills. It turned out I had quite the knack for empathy, insight, and creative thinking, all of which were indicators that I was predisposed to therapy.
As I entered my Master's program, I threw myself into research about relationships and sex therapy and worked tirelessly to learn and develop techniques for teaching partners to communicate openly and safely with one another, especially on the topic of sex. Research on the subject was minimal and dated because sexuality is considered such a subjective topic. I learned that in order to be a good therapist, I had to be willing to engage in some amount of trial and error with my clients. The longer I worked with individual and relational systems, the easier it was to see that problems in the relationship stemmed from what we learned (or, more accurately, didn’t learn) about how to communicate with our partner(s) when we are struggling. The more I learn about what we don’t know as a culture, the more humbling the work I do becomes.
As your therapist, you can count on my tenacity and devotion to learning about your story through your eyes, rather than my own, and to explore interventions that work for you and your partner(s). Together, we will explore old histories that have impacted how you think and behave and create space to rewrite stories that no longer fit.
For a full list of credentials, education, professional affiliations, trainings, etc, please see my CV below
