Peter Leopold

What should your client know about you?

Before I became a therapist, I spent years as a classroom teacher and as the director of a group home for men navigating serious mental health struggles. Those experiences — working with people in some of their most difficult moments — are what drew me to therapy and continue to shape how I practice. I'm not here to hand you a worksheet and call it a session. I genuinely want to understand your life: how you got here, what keeps getting in the way, and what growth actually looks like for you. I work with adults dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship patterns that feel impossible to break — and I believe insight, not just coping, is what creates lasting change.

What is your approach to therapy?

My primary approach is psychodynamic, which means I'm interested in the whole person — not just managing symptoms, but understanding the deeper emotional and relational forces that shape how you think, feel, and behave. We'll look at your history, your patterns, your inner life. We'll also do real, practical work: examining the thoughts that undermine you, exploring the stories you carry about yourself, and building the kind of self-awareness that actually sticks. I bring both warmth and directness to every session. I want you to feel safe, but I also want to challenge you — because I think you can handle more growth than you give yourself credit for.

What can clients expect from their first session with you?

In our first session, I'll spend most of the time listening and learning about you — your background, what brought you to therapy, and what you're hoping for. You'll also have a real chance to ask me anything: about my style, my experience, how I work. It won't feel like an interview or an intake form. By the end, we'll start to sketch out what we're working toward together. My goal for the first session is simple: that you leave feeling genuinely heard, and at least a little more hopeful than when you walked in.