Leigha Ortego

Leigha Ortego is a seasoned therapist who has worked in the social work and mental health field since 2008. Alongside private practice, she has held a wide range of roles, including clinical supervisor, intensive outpatient program director, field instructor for Master’s-level students, residential treatment clinician, school counselor, in-home therapist, and case manager. That breadth shapes how she meets clients today as a Senior Clinician at The Lovett Center.

Her clinical interests are broad and personal. Leigha works with clients navigating anxiety, depression, perfectionism, body image and disordered eating behaviors, relationship issues, addiction, trauma, and grief, as well as clients moving through pregnancy and parenthood and the LGBTQ+ population. With a relaxed, nonjudgmental, and sometimes humorous approach, she welcomes clients into a collaborative journey of finding hope, drawing on an eclectic combination of evidence-based treatment models to target the specific needs and goals of each individual. She specializes in helping people face life transitions and struggles through a self-compassionate lens.

To Leigha, therapy is about gaining a deeper understanding of oneself and learning to build on one’s strengths, including exposing the behavioral and thought patterns that no longer serve a person. She believes it is important to find trust, safety, and compassion with one’s therapist in order to feel supported enough to do the necessary work, and her primary goal is to provide that space for her clients.