Leah Rockwell, LPC, LCPC
Therapy for moms in Maryland, Pennsylvania, or South Carolina
Hi, I’m Leah. I’m an EMDR therapist and I believe that when a mom is fulfilled and supported, the whole family thrives.
When I was 28, I became a mom to my own daughter. At the same time I also became a “resident mom” to 100 teenage girls in a boarding school in south-central Pennsylvania. I think that this crash course in motherhood set the trajectory for my career. Ever since, I’ve been on a mission to support moms and women.
I’ve been a teacher, a sex educator, a school counselor and administrator, and a college mental health counselor.
And through all of that, I’ve been a mom.
I get what it’s like to:
yearn for work/life balance
struggle with burnout
recalibrate my life to be present for the people I love
I haven’t gotten it right all the time, but I’ve gotten enough of it right enough of the time.
I’d love to help you get there too.
My mission
I have had the huge privilege of being born of, living with, working for, befriending, and loving many vibrant women. As a mom of two daughters, I feel great urgency to create a world in which girls can have access to a society in which they know that they deserve to be loved, respected, and compensated equally to their male counterparts. That’s only fair.
I opened Rockwell Wellness Counseling, LLC in August, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic because it was critically important to me to initiate the healing that our world so badly needs. With so many women overburdened by caregiving roles, the call to create space exclusively for women to take time for themselves to explore, re-connect, and engage in meaningful ways with their inner worlds beckoned me to take action. I left a comfortable salary to take the risk to advance what felt like a personal invitation for change, and I feel deeply that it is the spark of one woman that ignites the spark of the next. Being a mom today is hard; I hope that the existence of a motherhood-focused counseling practice will encourage other women to care for themselves so that they can follow their own dreams.
How I work
My work with clients involves building awareness of their emotional experience, often by enhancing their own curiosity and attunement to what is happening in their bodies. I believe that a somatically integrated approach to understanding our emotions is essential, and I draw from Mindfulness-based Self-Compassion, Polyvagal Theory, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. I am a trauma informed therapist who has been trained both in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy and Somatic Therapy, both therapies that are focused on healing trauma, chronic stress, and burnout. Together we will work for you to develop insight and self-compassion, even when that feels foreign or scary.
Depending on what you’re struggling with, I rely on data-supported interventions to support our work. I am transparent in providing psychoeducation about what we’re doing, all while collaborating with you on what’s working for you.
My background:
I’ve been a helper for most of my life, working in schools and higher education, always with women. I’ve worked with teens, young adults, and new parents, and my approach is consistently kind yet straightforward. I’ll be sure that, through our time together, you’re getting direct and open communication. When we do this together, you learn to do it in all other areas of your life. If you want someone who politely sits and listens quietly, I’m likely not the right fit for you.
My professional training is as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC); I am licensed in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and I am board-certified as a National Certified Counselor (NCC) through the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC.) I received a Master’s of Education Degree in School Counseling from Shippensburg University in 2010, and then went on to complete my training in Mental Health Counseling, earning my LPC in May, 2017.
I have completed post-masters work in a variety of areas, including perinatal mental health, EMDR and somatic therapy, working with challenging adolescents, supervision/mentoring, and positive psychology.
Licensure and credentials:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania License Number PC009618.
State of Maryland Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor LC 11058
National Practitioner Number 1457979809
National Certified Counselor Number 268755
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) initial licensure, 2017
Master’s of Education in School Counseling, Shippensburg University, 2010
BA in Spanish, University of Richmond, 2001
Places of employment include Mercersburg Academy, Wilson College, Asheville School, Georgetown Preparatory School
