Leilani’s integrative approach to therapeutic work draws from a diverse range of psychodynamic trainings, workshops and education involving trauma-informed therapy, adolescent self-image and empowerment, parental alienation and estrangement, EMDR, mentalization, sex/pornography addiction, substance abuse addiction and grief and loss.
Leilani has received extensive training in working with children and parents to navigate difficult times of divorce, custody disputes and family crises. She also works with adults seeking to heal from childhood experiences that involve parental conflict and divorce. In August 2018, Leilani presented her Master’s thesis at a conference in London, Moving Upstream: Family Separation Clinic and European Association of Parental Alienation Practitioners. Titled,“Therapy Contraindicated: The Treatment Challenges of Working with Severely Alienated Children”. Her thesis highlighted the negative impact children face during times of high-conflict parental divorce and provided practical recommendations that therapists could follow in these difficult situations based on the latest evidence-based research.
Additionally, she is completing a rigorous training program as a Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT) through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP). This program was developed by the field’s pioneer, Robert Karnes, for the treatment of those seeking to heal from sex abuse, addiction, compulsion, pornography or ineffective sexual patterns. Additionally Leilani has been trained to work with partners of sex addicts who are traumatized by the discovery of their partners infidelity.
She has also earned a basics-level Mentalization certification jointly offered by the Anna Freud Center based in London and the Menninger Clinic at Harvard Medical Center for the treatment of borderline individuals. A psychodynamic approach to strengthening insight and cognition, mentalization has shown to be effective in the treatment of clients with borderline characteristics, emotional dysregulation and epistemic distrust.
Leilani works with individuals and couples of all gender identifications and orientations including heterosexual and LGBTQIA.
Leilani began her clinical work in 2016 as a Trainee at Counseling West, an affordable nonprofit counseling center in Sherman Oaks. She earned her master’s degree (M.A.) in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and her B.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).