Leanne Sawchuk, Psychotherapy & Counselling Services

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Kitchener, ON
Leanne Sawchuk, Psychotherapy & Counselling Services

Psychotherapist | Clinical Supervisor | Healer
Helping people unravel + heal their inner wounds Welcome to my page!

As Registered Psychotherapist, I provide services to both individual's and couple's within a safe and therapeutic space. Some of my areas of specialization include: depression, anxiety, eating disorders, addiction, relationship challenges, trauma, and PTSD. This page is updated with information pertaining to mental health, well-being, coping strategies, speaking engagements, community events, work

shops, and mindfulness based ideas and tips. Like my page and visit my website (www.leannesawchuk.com) for more information.

06/05/2026

Hi Everyone!

I have two spots remaining in my upcoming Relational Group Supervision cohort beginning June 9th.

I’m a Registered Psychotherapist, Group Facilitator, and Clinical Supervisor with 13 years in private practice, working with individuals and couples. My clinical work is grounded in a relational and psychodynamic lens, with extensive training in trauma and somatic therapies. I offer a small group format that supports both connection and depth.

My approach to supervision is shaped by how I practice therapy. I’m interested not only in what we do with clients, but also in what the work brings up in us as clinicians. I deeply value the human condition that emerges in us as we engage in this work, and how it shapes the ways we show up, or don’t. I value spaces where we can think carefully about clinical responsibility while also being honest about uncertainty, countertransference, and the emotional weight of the work. I believe supervision is most effective when it is reflective, relational, and human.

Details:
Start Date: June 9th (bi-weekly)
Time: 10:00am–11:30am ET
Participants: 6–8
Cost: $70 per session
Location: Virtual on Zoom

If you’re interested or would like more information, feel free to comment below or reach out to me directly. You can also find more details about the group and how to register on my website.

– Leanne

04/30/2026

Sometimes you read something and you can feel the person behind the words, which is becoming more extinct these days.

I remember reading Ana’s application for the first time and feeling… struck. Not by perfectly curated answers, but by her transparency. There was a kind of rawness and vulnerability to her words that felt human and unpolished. I found myself pausing because this is the kind of presence I value deeply in this work. Not just what we know, but how we are with people and they way we show up.

I’m really glad to be introducing Ana as part of the team!

Ana works with adults and couples, offering both in-person sessions in Kitchener and virtual sessions across Ontario. The people she works with are often carrying more than they let on. Often feeling lost, stuck, misunderstood, or quietly overwhelmed in ways that are hard to name.

What stands out to me about Ana is her ability to sit within those places. Not rush them or to fox then, but to create the kind of space where something can begin to soften, unfold, and be understood.

Her work is shaped not just by her training, but by her own lived experience of finding her way through some of those darker, heavier places and discovering what it means to be met with steadiness and care.

If you’ve been feeling like something inside of you is asking for attention, even if you can’t quite make sense of it yet, Ana is someone who will meet you there.

You can learn more about Ana, her training, and her work, or book a consultation or initial session through the link in my bio.

— Leanne

03/31/2026

Registration is OPEN for my upcoming Relational Group Supervision that begins on April 28th.

I’m a Registered Psychotherapist, Group Facilitator, and Clinical Supervisor, with 13 years in private practice, working with individuals and couples. My clinical work is grounded in a relational and psychodynamic lens, with extensive training in trauma and somatic therapies. I offer a small group format that supports connection and depth.

How I approach supervision is shaped by how I practice therapy.

I’m interested not only in what we do with clients, but in what the work brings up in us as clinicians. I value spaces where we can think carefully about clinical responsibility while also being honest about uncertainty, countertransference, and the emotional weight of the work. I believe supervision is most effective when it is reflective, relational, and human.

💥Details:

Date: Weekly sessions begin April 28th
Time: 10:00am-11:30am ET
Total Participants: 6-8
Cost: $70 per session
Location: Zoom.

Curious to learn more? 👇

If you find yourself interested and want more information about the group itself, please comment below, reach out to me directly, or go to the link in my bio.

- Leanne

03/26/2026

I built this practice on a very simple belief: healing happens in relationship.

Not in perfect strategies or quick fixes, but in being deeply seen, felt, and met by another human in a way that actually lands.

As this practice has grown, I’ve been incredibly intentional about who I bring into this space. I knew I didn’t just want a “good therapist”, I wanted someone who embodies the kind of presence I believe creates real, lasting change.

And that's when I met Audrey.

Meet Audrey Harvie, RP - our very first associate therapist.

When I first sat with Audrey I left feeling quite struck by her presence. I felt impacted by the way she held our conversation. I intuitively knew she was "the one" (as cheesy as that sounds).

Audrey works with high-achieving adults who have spent years being the steady one. The accommodating one. The easy one.
The person everyone relies on. The one who knows how to keep things together, anticipate needs, and show up for everyone else.

But when it comes to their own pain? Their own overwhelm, resentment, or loneliness? That’s often carried quietly and alone.

Audrey doesn’t sit across from you as an observer of that experience. She knows it from the inside. She has done her own work, sat in the client’s chair, and understands how vulnerable it is to let yourself be seen in the places you’ve learned to hide.

That lived experience shapes how she shows up.

Warm. Grounded. Attuned. Present.

Not rushing you. Not fixing you. But actually meeting you where you are, and staying there with you.

Audrey is now accepting new clients virtually across Ontario.

If you’ve been looking for a therapist who will gently hold space for all of who you are, not just the parts that are easy to share, she might be exactly who you’ve been needing.

You can book a free consultation through the link in bio, or go to:

➡️ www.leannesawchuk.com/contact

AnxietyTherapy TraumaTherapy DepressionTherapy GriefTherapy AttachmentTherapy MentalHealth TherapistCommunity KitchenerWaterloo WaterlooRegion LeanneSawchukAndAssociates

01/30/2026

Hello everyone!

I have two spots left in my upcoming Group Supervision cohort starting on March 4th. It is a closed group with the option of continuing after the 6th session.

I’m a Registered Psychotherapist, Group Facilitator, and Clinical Supervisor, with 13 years in private practice, working with individuals and couples. My clinical work is grounded in a relational and psychodynamic lens, with extensive training in trauma and somatic therapies.

How I approach supervision is shaped by how I practice therapy.

I’m interested not only in what we do with clients, but in what the work brings up in us as clinicians. I value spaces where we can think carefully about clinical responsibility while also being honest about uncertainty, countertransference, and the emotional weight of the work. I believe supervision is most effective when it is reflective, relational, and human.
I offer a small group format that supports connection and depth.

Details:
Date: Six (6) bi-weekly sessions beginning on March 4th
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm
Total Participants: 6-8
Cost: $70 per session
Location: Virtual (Zoom)

If you find yourself interested and want more information about the group itself, please comment below, or reach out to me directly. You can also find more information by clicking on the link below:

https://www.leannesawchuk.com/services/clinical-supervision/group

01/18/2026

Any questions?

Just a gentle reminder that feelings, yours or another's, are not a group project or a debate. People are the experts on their own internal experience.

“You shouldn’t feel that way” has never regulated a nervous system or repaired a relationship, nor has "calm down".

Consent applies to emotions too, not just to bodies.

#

01/15/2026

I have a new group supervision cohort for Ontario therapists starting in March and wanted to share a bit about the offering.

I’m a Registered Psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, with 13 years in private practice, working with individuals and couples. My clinical work is grounded in a relational and psychodynamic lens, with extensive training in trauma and somatic therapies.

How I approach supervision is shaped by how I practice therapy. I’m interested not only in what we do with clients, but in what the work brings up in us as clinicians. I value spaces where we can think carefully about clinical responsibility while also being honest about uncertainty, countertransference, and the emotional weight of the work. I believe supervision is most effective when it is reflective, relational, and human.

This group supervision will focus on:

*Clinical case consultation
*Relational and countertransference dynamics
*Trauma-informed and somatic perspectives
*Ethical and professional considerations
*Integrating theory with lived clinical experience
*The human lived experience

All supervision hours count toward CRPO requirements. This group is Open to early-career and more experienced therapists. I offer a small group format that supports connection and depth. Each group session is 90 minutes.

If you’d like more information about me, my work, or this group, you can find details here:
https://www.leannesawchuk.com/services/clinical-supervision/group

Feel free to comment or message me with any questions.

01/12/2026

Everyone has moved on. You haven't.
Maybe that isn't the point.
And maybe you're tired of pretending you have too.

Grief doesn't follow rules. It doesn't care that the world kept spinning or that people stopped asking how you're doing. It settles into the body and the breath, into the space between thoughts. It becomes part of how you move through the world, often without language, often alone.

We carry so many kinds of grief. Not just the grief of death, but the grief of endings that were never acknowledged. The grief of relationships that required too much of us. The grief of who we thought we'd be by now. The grief of what happened and the silence that followed.

Grief Untethered is an 8-week online group for adults carrying loss, whatever form it takes. Whether you've lost a person, a relationship, or a version of your life you thought you'd have.

This isn't about fixing your grief or rushing toward some imagined finish line. It's a space to be witnessed. To sit with others who understand what it means to still be holding something the world expects you to have let go of by now.

You don't need the "right" kind of loss. Just a willingness to show up as you are.

📅 8 Mondays beginning February 9, 2026
🕡 6:30 to 8:30 PM Eastern
💻 Online via Zoom, open to all Ontario residents
✨ Covered by most extended health benefits

Limited to 12 participants.
The last three cohorts filled quickly.

If something in you is stirring as you read this, even quietly, you don't have to talk yourself out of it.

Link to learn more -->
https://www.leannesawchuk.com/services/group-therapy/grief-untethered

01/09/2026

We talk about abandonment a lot. About who didn’t show up, who left, and who failed us when we needed them most.

What we talk about far less is when we leave ourselves.

Most people don’t realize they’ve abandoned themselves, because it often doesn’t feel like abandonment. Maybe it feels like maturity, “being the bigger person,” or being so good at anticipating everyone’s needs.

Self-abandonment is what happens when being yourself becomes unsafe. When your feelings were met with silence, tension, or withdrawal. When your needs created distance instead of care. When your truth cost you connection.

So you learned to disappear selectively.

At some point you started editing your reactions, diluting your wants, swallowing the words you really wanted to say. You learned to survive by becoming smaller than your instincts. No one called it harm. They called it maturity. Selflessness. “Emotional control.”

Something I explore often in my work is watching people trace their pain back, not just to who abandoned them, but to the moment they realized staying with themselves was too costly.

At some point something inside you learned a brutal equation early on:

If I stay with myself, I lose you.
So you left.

You left your body by overriding exhaustion, hunger, dread. You left your anger by turning it into self-doubt, silence, shame. You left your knowing by questioning your truth until it went quiet.

This didn’t come from weakness.
It came from a nervous system that learned "connection" required sacrifice.

So you became functional, reliable, and needed, instead of truly known. And now you may wonder why you feel empty in full rooms, why intimacy feels exposing but never relieving, or why your life looks fine but feels hollow.

That’s the residue of self-abandonment.

Healing doesn’t start with self-love.
It starts with grief. With rage. With realizing how long you had to disappear to survive.

Coming back to yourself feels like betrayal at first. But self-abandonment ends the moment you stop negotiating your existence for belonging.
And that moment is rarely gentle.

01/07/2026

I just found out my therapist died.

No warning. Just a single sentence that landed in my chest and refused to move. A sentence that landed me back in that room immediately. The chair I always chose. The way I sat, half braced, half hopeful. The pauses that stretched just long enough for something real to surface. The space between us that somehow felt steady, intentional, and alive.

I have been reflecting on the way she didn’t rush me and the way silence wasn’t empty with her. It held me...she held me. There was this way she held eye contact that felt comforting, not threatening. The way I learned, slowly, that I didn’t have to fill every quiet moment to survive.

She always reminded me of lilies and the colour purple.. Soft, but not fragile, deep, grounded, and unmistakable. That’s where she lives in me now.

She helped save my life. And the truth is, I don’t know if I would be here today if it weren’t for her. As cliché as that sounds, it’s true.

I don't say this because she fixed me, but because she stayed.
Because she never turned away.
Because she made space.
Because she believed I could survive myself before I did.

This is a strange kind of grief. There’s no current relationship to reference. No funeral I will attend. No obvious place to put the gratitude that has nowhere to go, except for here, perhaps.

I’m grieving her, the version of me who once sat across from her, which was raw and unsure, but doing the bravest thing she knew how to do at the time. I’m grieving the fact that I will never get to tell her who I became. I am also aware of the ways in which I carry her with me in the work I do now and how I try to show up.

Her death made me think about my own clients and about the space we share. The chairs they choose and how they sit. The pauses they may carry long after our work ends. The ways therapy, and the therapuetic relaitonship itself, lives inside people quietly, invisibly, sometimes for years.

I wonder how grief shows up when the helper is gone. When the guide becomes a memory. When the person who once helped hold you cannot be found again.

Grief like this can be layered and even arrive late. I’m reminded (again) that grief does not follow rules. And neither does healing.

Address

276 Frederick Street
Kitchener, ON
N2H2N4

Telephone

+15197726896

Website

http://www.leannesawchuk.com/

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