Leah Cerf, LMSW

Our work together will help you find the innate resources and strengths that you need to gain insight into what is getting in your way, so that you can restore balance, harmony, and health to your life. My style is warm, non-judgmental, and highly interactive— no subject, thought, or emotion is barred from talking about. I use a non-pathologizing approach that is affirming and strengths-based. I am sex-positive and LGBTQ-affirming, and I recognize that all individuals are situated within the larger social and political context of their lives. Together, we will help you build self-awareness and emotional flexibility to create space for positive changes. We'll help you gain insight into how the past shaped you, shift whatever isn't working, and release what isn't serving you so you can get what you want in life. I work with adults, millennials and teens struggling with relationship and attachment issues, anxiety, depression, major life transitions, toxic family patterns, family dysfunction, poor boundary setting, work-life balance issues, burnout, identity building, chronic somatic distress, chronic illness, intergenerational trauma, and sexuality.

I utilize a variety of techniques to help you discover not only how the past is impacting you today, but also how we can alter recurring thoughts, behaviors, and patterns that are holding you back. My work is holistic and integrative, and honors all of the interrelated facets of well-being: the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional. My practice is informed by psychodynamic psychotherapy, mindfulness and imagery techniques, somatic work, cognitive behavioral therapy, attachment-based therapy, and dialectical behavioral therapy, and my background in the creative arts. Our work will help you build greater self-awareness and emotional flexibility to create space for positive changes in your life, both tangible and energetic. As our sessions progress, we will get to the core of where certain patterns come from and why they are getting in your way. Our work will help you identify distorted thinking, modify beliefs, change behavior, and relate to yourself and others in a way that helps you build an authentic, integrated whole, resilient, and gratifying sense of self.

*Virtual only