Leah Webster (She/her)

Monogamous or not, all relationships struggle at times. I primarily work with relationships who are need of understanding attachment, communication, and help skill building to make their relationship strong enough to weather future storms. With non-monogamy, I usually work with relationships who are new and exploring what non-monogamy can mean for them and their relationship.

Being a teenager is hard, and I'm so glad that adolescents today are embracing therapy. My teen clients are usually struggling with depression, anxiety, stress management, and navigating communicating in friendships, relationships, and family dynamics. They are also exploring their sexual orientation and identity. I am passionately committed to my teens and their feelings of safety with me, and I do not share with parents anything outside of the confidential realms without express permission.

I work a lot with sexual pain, often with roots in trauma or an upbringing where sex was not spoken about, or treated like a shameful act to be hidden. Many women come to me expressing how they feel so alone and "broken" due to their inability to have sex. Our work together is slow and safe, often focusing on processing, exploration, psycho-education, and experiential exercises. You are not alone, or broken, and working with a therapist as well as a physical therapist is usually the best course.

I utilize mindfulness approaches often with clients, if they decide it resonates with them and their goals. Mindfulness can be utilized for SO many things, ranging from self esteem to sexual functioning. It can be quite uncomfortable at first, as I believe humans are wildly uncomfortable sitting with themselves with the current amount of distractions constantly available to us, but I whole-heartedly believe we can all benefit from being more present with ourselves.

I am Level 1 trained in the Gottman Method, and I also completed a training to be able to teach workshops on the Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. The Gottman method utilizes many exploration and processing techniques as well as a skill building component to make your relationship function better and able to handle future struggles. I utilize different couple counseling modalities, but this is the one I have the most consistent training in.

Like mindfulness, I believe CBT can be useful for so many struggles! Again, ranging from self-esteem to sexual functioning, our thoughts no doubt play a huge part in how we process and understand ourselves and the world. If our thoughts are struggling to be compassionate and kind to ourselves and others, it can lead to behaviors that perpetuate cycles in beliefs about ourselves. CBT isn't for everyone, but it's definitely useful in some degree for most people.