PHYLLIS LEAVITT

My name is Phyllis Leavitt. I have been a psychotherapist for over thirty years and I wrote a new book called "America in Therapy: A New Approach to Hope and Healing for a Nation in Crisis," about the urgent need for addressing both our individual and collective mental health as the greatest resource for healing our growing divisiveness and escalating violence. How did we get here and what can we do to reverse course? My experience as both a client and a psychotherapist has helped me identify understandings and skills I believe we desperately need not only to live safe and fulfilling lives but to change our current trajectory here in America and actually to survive as a species. I have a unique point of view in that I look at the Family of America through the psychological lens of Family Systems and Family Therapy in a way not usually addressed or even factored into our collective understanding or quest for solutions. My book is written for the layman to make common knowledge all that we already know about how to heal human relations and prevent the violence and abuse that destroys our connection to one another and to the sanctity of all life. I would love to begin sharing my understandings with the public through your podcast.

I also have a very strong spiritual bent, not religious but spiritual, in the sense that I believe when we peal back the layers of faulty conditioning, all that has hurt us, and all the dysfunctional adaptations we have made just to survive, we find a beautiful essential self that is innately loving, connected, cooperative, peaceful, and kind, and that all true healing work ultimately helps us connect to our true self and our greatest gifts, strengths and contributions. I believe that in focusing on seeing the best in each other and supporting each other to heal the wounds that have caused separation, division and aggression, we can actually heal our country and our planet. And that this is the greatest and perhaps the most difficult work we will ever do.

I graduated from Antioch University with a Masters’ Degree in Psychology and Counseling in 1989. I initially co-directed a sexual abuse treatment program before going into private practice full time, treating children, families, couples, and individual adults for over 30 years. I have also published two books about my own healing journey and the amazing connection I made to me own essential self-- "A Light in the Darkness" and "Into the Fire," and my third and most recent book is "America in Therapy: A New Approach to Hope and Healing For a Nation in Crisis." I live in Taos, NM and I am retired from my practice, focusing on writing. My website is www.phyllisleavitt.com

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Phyllis Leavitt MA

(505) 670-2933

[email protected]