SUMMON COURAGE
WHERE INNER WORK MEETS THE LIVING WORLD
  For those ready to stop abandoning themselves and start growing into who they actually are.
THE PHILOSOPHY
TWO PRACTICES. ONEÂ TRUTH.
Growth happens when people feel safe enough to stop performing and get their hands dirty.
In the therapy room, that looks like sitting with someone long enough that the truth is revealed. In the garden, it looks like teaching that the most important thing is not the plant. It is the ground.
Summon Courage and Earthwise were built around a single belief: that coming home to yourself is the bravest thing a person can do. And that the work — whether it happens in a session or a season — is always worth beginning.
SUMMON COURAGE
Psychotherapy · Somatic Work · ConsultingÂ
For those who have done enough living to know something deeper is available, and enough courage to stop waiting for a better time to find it.
This is not the therapy you have had before. It is not about managing what is wrong. It is about understanding where it came from and discovering what becomes possible when you stop carrying it the same way. Embodied, spiritually honest, and built to go all the way in.
Individual, couples, and family therapy · Somatic Experiencing · SSP & RRP · Consulting
EARTHWISE
Garden Stewardship · Families · Schools
Where Good Things Grow.
Earthwise is a hands-on garden stewardship practice for families, schools, and community spaces who are ready to grow something real.
We start with the soil. We show up through the seasons. And we walk the full growing process alongside you from first seed to first harvest, and every season that follows.
"Kids will eat anything when they pull it out of the ground themselves."
We have seen it. It is still one of our favorite things.
EXPLORE STEWARDSHIP PACKAGESIt's an honor to meet you.
I'M LESLEY.
PsyD · SEP · Certified in SSP and RRP · Orange County, CA
I did not arrive here by accident. Neither did you.
I am a licensed psychologist and somatic practitioner, and the person who once walked away from everything she had built, named her practice for what she needed most, and found out what she was actually made of.
I work with high-functioning professionals who feel the pull toward something deeper, whether they have been in therapy for years or are walking through that door for the first time.
I also work with families who want their children to know where food comes from, what patience feels like, and what it means to grow something with their own hands.
I show up to both with my training, my intuition, my humor, and my own hard-won understanding of what becomes possible when you finally stop abandoning yourself.
Clients take their shoes off in my office. That is not a coincidence. It is the whole point.
HOW I WORK“I had the pleasure of working under Lesley's supervision and can attest to her clinical expertise, as well as her genuine compassion for her patients. Lesley is a therapist that works from the heart, and can guide you to deeply heal."Â
— Chloe A. Cox, Marriage & Family Therapist, LMFT, MA
“Lesley has been helping with my classroom garden, and I don't know what I would do without her. She has helped us build several diverse garden beds and attends to the needs of local plants and insects. When we did a butterfly unit, she taught us there is a special type of milkweed plant we needed to use to ensure the butterflies would thrive. She has fostered a love of gardening among my students and a willingness to try some new vegetables too."Â
— Monique Montiel, Kindergarten Teacher Woodland Elementary
THE APPROACH.
This is not the therapy you have had before.
(Or the garden service, for that matter.)
You lead. I navigate.
I will not tell you what to do. I will ask the question that makes you uncomfortable enough to finally see clearly. The work is yours. I just know how to hold the room while you do it.
The body is not separate from the work.
Whether we are sitting together in session or kneeling in the dirt, the answers live in the body first. Both practices are built around that truth.
I show up as a real person.
Self-disclosure is how I build trust quickly. My clients take their shoes off. They laugh. They fall apart a little. That is not a side effect; it is the point.
I will call you back.
In a field where this is not guaranteed, it is. Every time. Because dependability is a form of care, and it is the foundation everything else is built on.
RESOURCES
FOR HEALING, REFLECTION & GROWTH IN BETWEEN SESSIONS
Attachment, Relationships & Family Systems
Trauma, Nervous System & Somatic Healing
Grief, Loss & Life Transitions
Parenting, Children & Intergenerational Healing
Emotional Regulation, Self-Compassion & Personal Growth
Spirituality, Meaning & Consciousness
Nature, Embodiment & Interconnection
Creativity, Purpose & Authentic Living
Leadership, Culture & Human Behavior
Recovery, Boundaries & Relational Health
Depth Psychology, Myth & Human Nature
Guided Meditations & Mindfulness Practices
Somatic & Reflective Practices
REFLECTIONS & WRITING
I also share reflections and writings on healing, relationships, grief, embodiment, parenting, spirituality, and courageous living through my Substack, The Courageous Path.
'TIL DEATH DO US PART
A look at how vows may inspire us all to live with love, compassion and a commitment to truth.
FRANTIC TO FAITH
Transforming fear through contact with intuition.Â
LION HEART
Letting the body and intuition support trauma healing.
