Clinicians who offer sliding scale payment structures may offer lower or reduced fees based on an individual's ability to pay. Please contact this clinician for more details regarding their fees or sliding scale policy.My Approach to Helping
My name is Leisa Watkins and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist with specialties and credentials in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy and MaritalCouples counseling. I am a trauma-informed therapist who believes that trauma does not define a person, it determines our behavioral responses and therefore, it can be healed and our responses can be altered to become healthier, and productive, and lead to success in relationships and in life. I combine EMDR with couples work, and individual work, and treat anxiety and depression with EMDREMDR skills, CBT, DBT, Narrative, and Emotive therapies. I utilize Family Systems, Structural, and Strategic therapies with couples and Ego State, REBT, and Integrated Family Systems with individuals.
I enjoy working with couples dealing with past trauma, trust issues, communication strains, and parenting issues. I also enjoy working with dissociation, anxiety, depression, bipolar, grief, and life changes in both individuals and couples. I prefer that my clients see me as nonjudgmental, willing to sit with big emotions, open in communication, validating, and when desired, challenging negative cognitions. I believe that connection is the primary requirement for a healthy and productive therapeutic alliance with my clients. I was a victim of sexual abuse throughout my childhood and struggled for many decades with dissociation. I found complete healing from my trauma and decided that I had a calling to help others overcome their challenges and traumas so that they could live their best lives and find joy. I continue to do this work, even though I have tried retiring several times in the past few years because I love helping others create a new healthy paradigm for themselves.
Goals are personal to each individual. If I am setting your goals, you have no investment in them. I want to help you verbalize your goals and then assist you in developing the tools and skills to meet those goals. My first sessions are all about building rapport. If you aren't comfortable with your clinician after the first session, you will struggle to build a solid working relationship with them. My goal in the first session is to develop an environment of acceptance and comfortability.