HI! I’m Leah

From burnout to aliveness

Throughout my life, painting has acted as both anchor and mirror—integrating and illuminating my emotions, longings, and contradictions. In my early twenties, my paintings helped me recognize that I was queer and allowed me to process aspects of my mixed-race identity that I wasn’t yet ready to express verbally. During that same time, I was working as a paralegal for survivors of human rights violations. Painting helped me understand what was stirring within me as I accompanied people navigating profound harm and injustice.

Over the years, I continued confronting the eﬀects of state violence and extraction in both my work as a trauma therapist and in my personal life. I came to understand that painting alone could not shield me from the numbness and grief I was carrying. I was experiencing burnout and a growing sense of hopelessness as I reckoned with how the infrastructures of violence embedded by the State can impact our own psyches and bodies.

It was during this time that I turned toward somatic practices to tend to my nervous system. As I slowed down enough to feel on a body-based level, my capacity to be with grief and pain grew. And as my window of tolerance for grief expanded, so did my capacity for joy and deeper connection. I began cultivating more meaningful relationships within my community and I started to notice little moments of beauty in everyday experiences.

I have come to believe that creating art, engaging in somatic practice, and slowing down enough to notice moments of beauty are essential to sustaining ourselves and our movements for liberation. If you are noticing feelings of stagnation, fear, or disconnection—and are longing to step toward a more embodied and relational way of living—I invite you to work with me! Together, we can cultivate transformation within ourselves and within the worlds we are shaping.