Leighna Harrison, Ph.D.

07/25/2025

From earning it to embodying it. 10 years ago today, I received my PhD in Clinical Psychology. I just published a personal reflection on what this decade has taught me — about healing, impact, and freedom. Here's to the next chapter.

What 10 Years with a PhD Has Taught Me

04/30/2025

Hey y’all! Super grateful to be back and offering our second free community processing space for BIPOC. If you’re needing a place to land these days, Haven is here. The brainchild of .meaggan and myself, it’s a BIPOC space to gather, breathe, and be. We’ll be processing the first 100 days and resourcing ourselves in community. Register at the link in bio. Let’s get free ✨

12/03/2024

Feeling stuck? You’re super smart and highly accomplished yet find yourself constantly wracked by self doubt and criticism. Your vision of what you thought your life would be — ease, softness, and flow — hasn’t come to be and you feel lost in it all: you have a great life — you just wish you were living it more.

Work with me and you’ll come out the other side stress-free, soft, and still successful.

I’m super excited to offer this Cyber Monday Sale! Give yourself or a loved one the gift of greater confidence and deeper self love this holiday season. Swipe through for more deets and click the link in bio to sign up.

Let’s get free.

11/06/2024

Super honored to offer and co-facilitate this space tomorrow night with my amazing friend and colleague .meaggan. We don’t have all the answers. We may not have the results yet. But we can be in community together. For more details and to register click the link in bio. Let’s get free.

01/08/2023

"What do you create that helps you make sense of the world? Do you write, like Alvarez? Do you paint? Do you sing? Do you cook? Do you dance?

Meditation comes in many forms. Finding peace through movement, through creation, through flow can transcend the mundane and the painful, arriving deliciously at the divine, the ethereal.

Today’s meditation is a moving one: Reflect on a movement that is meditative for you. It might be one of the ones listed above, or it might be something else. It might be something you do all the time, or it might be something you long to do which you have yet to engage in.

Set the time for 2 minutes and do whatever your movement is. If it’s something that takes time, improvise. Maybe eat a snack mindfully. There’s no wrong way — simply moving, creating, engaging, and embodying is key. Notice what comes up for you: vitality, energy, adrenaline? Or perhaps there’s judgment or sadness around why you haven’t been doing more of whatever it is. Whatever the feelings, just notice them and gently bring yourself back to movement. In states of fear, from the most horrifying to the mundanity of analysis paralysis, it is movement that brings us back to, and into, life."

01/05/2023

"Think about times when you have been (and may continue to be) the only person in the room who looks like you. Times when you’ve felt and feel lonely. Think back to the very first time you felt that way. You were probably a much younger person than you are now.

Honor the little girl inside of you that was brave enough to keep going, to keep persisting despite the loneliness. Breathe deeply; feeling into this time: what season of the year was it? where were you? what did you feel like? how old were you?

As you go throughout your day today, imagine this version of you by your side. Maybe you drive by the place where she felt the loneliest – the school yard, the gym, the community center. Or if you’re far away from that place, just imagine it in your mind. Invite your childlike self to hop in the car or hop on the bus with you. Take her hand. Take her to do something fun. The two of you. You’re not alone anymore. You never were. You never are."

01/04/2023

"Reflect on the balance you have to find between how you will be perceived by others versus speaking your truth. The ubiquitous catch 22: if you come on too strong, the “angry” label may be readily on the lips and minds of whomever you’re interacting with; if you don’t come on strong enough, labels of “weak” may quickly follow.

This balancing act is “in addition to” the usual trials and tribulations of life; these mental hoops you jump through are not of your making. While holding space for the overwhelm and the injustice of this reality, embrace and celebrate the parts of your reality which you can create.

As you go throughout your day today, notice and acknowledge the moments when you have to “think twice” about your response to any given situation. If feelings of anger, vulnerability, helplessness, or shame arise during these instances, simply notice these too. Breathe into them. Practice compassion by reminding yourself that women of color everywhere share a version of this experience. You are not alone. Then gift yourself a tiny act of kindness - a long exhale, a neck roll, a cool drink of water, a stretch from the ground up to the sky.'

01/03/2023

"Reflect on moments when your voice has been silenced, or you weren’t able to express yourself as you wished. Maybe this happened to you often as a child, to the point that you may now unwittingly do it to yourself.

As you inhale, imagine the air flowing into your nose and down to your throat chakra - the energy bridge between the body and the mind. As the air flows over and through your throat chakra, imagine it relaxing, washing away all those moments your words were lost or swallowed. Imagine it cleansing any accompanying shame you might feel around these memories. Imagine it clearing the pathway between your body and mind.

On your exhale, imagine that the lost and unspoken words, sentiments, emotions, and memories inside you are released into the world. Relax into a state of lightness at this release."

01/02/2023

"So much of our time these days is spent consuming, consuming, consuming – the news, social media, shows while our proactive, creative muscles go stagnant.

When do you feel the most creative? What creation do you want to freely and joyously add to or give to the world?

Find a moment to sit quietly and breathe. As the air goes in through your nose, and down into your lungs and belly, call to mind the beautiful things you make, have made, or long to make. Hold these images lovingly in mind. On your exhale, imagine your out breath as the first part of your process of creation, of your beautiful elegance that feeds the world.

As your mind weaves throughout your ideas, and as you move throughout your day, remember that your creations are no less and no greater than even the most delicate spider’s web. They all have their place, and they all belong — just as you do — beautiful elegant creations necessary to nourish the world."

01/01/2023

"Reflect on how you care for yourself. Do you put everyone else first? Did you see your mother and/or other female caregivers live selflessly, sometimes at the expense of their own health and well-being? Maybe because of that you find yourself overcorrecting. Do you vacillate between taking care of yourself - at the risk of being called self-centered, or as Lorde says ‘self-indulgent’ - and feeling terrified that if you give even an inch you will lose yourself?

In today’s meditation, focus on letting go of shame over either of these decisions. Honor that this shame is not yours to bear. Think of it as not having been internalized, but rather ‘appropriated’, meaning: you can give it back.

Sit quietly. Focus on how you will take care of yourself. Listen to what your body, your heart, and your emotions need. It may be that caring for others is your self-care. Honor your right to choose. Also focus on the loved one that is ‘you’. The loved one that is inside of you. Spend 5 minutes thinking of her and how you will care for her today. How does this small act of self-care fit into larger movements of resistance? What will your self-care look like today? "

10/29/2021

The fileds of psychology, mental health, and therapy have long subscribed to an individualistic perspective on human suffering:

"your problems are yours and yours alone and it's up to you to fix it".

While personal responsibility and personal power cannot be denied when we consider changing what we struggle with in life, we also cannot deny that the personal *is* political and we do not exist in a vaccum.

Larger social systems of inequity and oppression have a profound impact on our health and well-being.

Working from the perspective that our problems are ours and ours alone, and "getting better" within that belief system, only serves to make one more successful within the oppressive system that has caused them harm.

The system is broken, based on unequal access to power over resources -- ultimately serving those with certain identities at the expense of others.

The healing journey is deeply challenging, personal, and life changing.

My wish for you is that you don't enter into it with the belief that there is something innately fundamentally flawed within you, but that you balance your own personal struggles with the context of larger systems of oppression.

It's not either/or but both/and. See what "space" is found when you move from self-blame to personal and collective responsibility.

Let's get free.

10/28/2021

We can't let Mental Health Awareness month come to a close without talking about training for mental health providers. The mental health field has historically been informed by and rooted in interlocking systems of oppression inlcuding but not limited to patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, racism, and heteronormativity.

In order to reduce further harm, it is imperative that those of us who are supervising therapists-in-training, provide supervision that is anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and liberation based. That discussions of therapuetic process include aspects of identity and how the therapist-in-training is similar to and different from their clients, and the subsequent experiences of power and privilege that are re-created in the therapy room.

If we fail to do this, we perpetuate the status quo and provide a contradictory therapeutic experience for clients: offering healing in one breath and reinforcing systems of oppression in the next. We must do better. And the beauty of it is: we can.

How do you incorporate anti-racism, anti-oppression, and liberation into your supervision?

Let's get free.