Jessie Leete
LCAT, ATR-BC #002012
Life Transitions
Emotional Regulation
Interpersonal Relationships & Self-Esteem
Client Focus: Adults of all ages, Athletes and former athletes, Individuals considering life changes
Specialties: Interpersonal relationships and self-esteem, emotional regulation and life transitions, athletic identity and performance pressure, career transitions, relationship changes
Treatment Methods: Creative Arts Therapy, DBT-Informed Therapy, ACT-Informed Therapy
Jessie Leete is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Board-Certified Art Therapist who specializes in supporting adults of all ages through life changes regarding careers, relationships, and personal identity. She creates spaces where clients can acknowledge their resilience factors and become stronger versions of themselves, becoming familiar and accepting of their vulnerabilities while enhancing communication and confidence. Jessie believes the decision to come to therapy demonstrates a commitment to becoming a stronger version of yourself, a process that includes exploring vulnerable layers that are sometimes challenging or painful to see, while also highlighting, maintaining, and even exposing the strengths and core values we sometimes forget about or take for granted.
Her therapeutic approach is informed by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), utilizing creative arts interventions to deepen insight into topics being discussed. While art materials may not be used in each session consistently, they're incorporated to enhance and support what each client brings to the table. Jessie believes creative arts therapy is an opportunity to examine one's individual role in achieving personal goals while also keeping your eyes open to what can be learned from the environment and events happening around you. Through this process, she helps clients discover unconscious ideas instilled from earlier stages of life that are impacting their current perspective of the self.
With a Master's in Creative Arts Therapy from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and training in DBT and ACT, Jessie brings both clinical expertise and a deep understanding of how art can facilitate self-discovery. While studying Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she became involved in Community Arts Partnership, teaching art classes at community sites, including high schools, residential mental health facilities, outpatient programs, and museums. What stood out most was how participants were instinctively using the art process to express themselves and create art reflective of their environment, experiences, and emotions. Her initial interest in art then deepened to wanting to understand the human experience through art.
Outside the therapy room, Jessie loves running, traveling, reading, and going to the beach. She also loves all animals and any opportunity to be in nature.
Self-Esteem Through Reframed Narrative
A common pattern for those who struggle with self-esteem is to focus on others around us, perhaps becoming curious or infatuated with drama happening between peers, coworkers, and even celebrities, or deflecting our own self-care and placing emphasis on helping everyone else. Jessie uses the values and instincts behind current behavior and reframes the narrative to build one's own self-esteem, using creative arts interventions to discover unconscious ideas impacting one's current perspective of the self.Athletic Identity Specialist
Jessie creates space to recognize the impact that physical activities, competition, and performance pressure have on ourselves as whole people. Whether you're an athlete, once considered yourself an athlete, or have experienced changes regarding a team, sport, or physical event (such as an injury or mental health decline), she addresses questions about how athletic identity affects your sense of self and how life events impact sports performance and mental health.Commitment Creates Alignment
When we truly make a commitment to better ourselves, other areas of life seem to fall into place. Jessie's approach examines your individual role in achieving personal goals while keeping your eyes open to what can be learned from the environment around you, exposing strengths and core values that may have been forgotten or overlooked by life's challenges.
"The decision to come to therapy demonstrates a commitment to becoming a stronger version of yourself. This process includes exploring the vulnerable layers that are sometimes challenging or painful to see, while also highlighting, maintaining, and even exposing the strengths and core values that we sometimes forget about or take for granted."
- Jessie Leete, LCAT, ATR-BC