Mental Health Clinician
Specialties: Anxiety, Depression, Burnout, Trauma, Grief, Midlife Transitions, Women’s Mental Health, Identity Development, Life Transitions, Spirituality & Religious Identity
Leah Weiss, PhD, MSW (she/her) is a psychotherapist, researcher, author, and educator who helps adults navigate anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, grief, life transitions, and questions of identity, meaning, purpose, and belonging. She works with individuals seeking greater clarity, resilience, and self-understanding during periods of change, loss, or uncertainty.
Leah believes therapy should be both compassionate and practical. She takes a collaborative, relational approach, integrating psychodynamic, mindfulness-based, trauma-informed, cognitive behavioral, and acceptance-based perspectives to help clients better understand longstanding patterns, develop new ways of coping, and create meaningful, lasting change. She views therapy as a place where people can reconnect with themselves, strengthen relationships, clarify their values, and build lives that feel more authentic, purposeful, and aligned with who they want to become.
Leah has a particular interest in working with clients navigating major developmental transitions, including midlife, changing family roles, caregiving, career transitions, and the many questions that arise around identity and belonging. She is the creator of The Midlife Curriculum, an evidence-informed framework that helps women understand midlife as a developmental transition rather than a personal crisis.
She enjoys working with Jewish individuals exploring the role of Jewish identity, family history, spirituality, religious practice, and intergenerational experiences in their lives. Leah also welcomes clients of all faiths, interfaith families, and those with no religious affiliation who wish to explore questions of meaning, purpose, values, or spiritual identity. Drawing on graduate training in pastoral ministry and theology, as well as years of work in contemplative studies and interreligious dialogue, she creates a respectful, inclusive space where clients’ beliefs, traditions, values, and lived experiences are honored as part of the therapeutic process. Her approach is grounded in evidence-based psychotherapy and shaped by cultural humility, curiosity, and deep respect for the many ways people make meaning throughout their lives.
Before entering full-time clinical practice, Leah spent more than two decades teaching and researching compassion, resilience, leadership, and human flourishing. She taught at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Stanford’s Compassion Center, where she helped develop and teach programs translating research into practical tools for personal and organizational wellbeing. Her work has informed programs in healthcare systems, universities, nonprofit organizations, and Fortune 500 companies, including initiatives at Mayo Clinic and Stanford Health Care.
Leah is the author of the internationally recognized book How We Work: Live Your Purpose, Reclaim Your Sanity, and Embrace the Daily Grind. She earned her BA from Stanford University and both her MSW and PhD from Boston College. She considers it a privilege to partner with clients as they navigate life’s challenges, reconnect with what matters most, and move toward lives of greater meaning, wellbeing, and purpose.
Leah is currently accepting new clients. To receive mental health support from her, contact our Intake Manager at 503-226-7079 x650 or through our online intake form.
