About Leela

My Story

For nearly two decades, I was treated for depression and anxiety in what I thought were responsible, routine ways. I saw therapists and I took medication. I even studied psychology and trained to become a counselor. But underneath it all, something never quite felt right.

Yes, the medication dulled some of the pain. But it also dulled my clarity, my instincts, and eventually my sense of self.

I ended up disconnected from who I really was.

Coming off psychiatric drugs wasn’t easy. In fact, it was one of the most physically and emotionally intense things I’ve ever done. But the further I got into that process, the more I began to understand: my symptoms weren’t signs of anything broken in me. They were signs that something deeper in me was trying to be heard.

Anxiety. Depression. Burnout. Emotional numbness. These aren’t random malfunctions. They’re intelligent responses to environments, patterns, and beliefs that are out of alignment with who we really are.

That truth changed everything for me.

Tapering was the beginning of a much deeper return—not just to my body, but to my voice, my power, and my life.

And it opened my eyes to far more than the problems with psychiatry. It helped me see how so many of our systems—medical, mental health, education, wellness—tend to disempower us, making us dependent on external authority instead of helping us trust ourselves.

What I’ve found over and over again, in myself and in the people I work with, is this: We don’t need to be fixed. We need to be met. We need to be seen on our truth. We need to remember how to hear ourselves again.