Therapy and Counselling in Victoria, BC
Leanne Stepp, MSW, RSW, RYT offers therapy for individuals and couples/people in relationships seeking support with relationships, identity, intimacy, grief, burnout, trauma, and life transitions.
With nearly 20 years of experience, Leanne provides compassionate, collaborative counselling that integrates sex therapy, relational psychotherapy, trauma-informed care, and embodied approaches such as yoga-informed somatic therapy. She offers in-person therapy in Victoria and virtual sessions across BC and Ontario.
Let’s explore your life stories.
People come to therapy for many reasons, so maybe I’ll start by reminding you that you don’t need permission to receive support for whatever you’re going through.
Maybe familiar patterns and relationships start to feel strange and worrisome. Perhaps you have that annoying realization that you’ve been repeating yourself, or your mistakes, for several months now. Sometimes difficult feelings can’t just be shaken off with the usual distractions, or the usual distractions take over and it’s hard to “adult” with those temptations around. Or maybe a horrible, terrible, awful thing just happened, grief has taken control of you and you wonder where to begin to put life back together again.
In our conversations, I’ll use therapy techniques in a trauma-informed, compassionate way to help you to make sense of your experience and the stories that shape your life.
Each question is offered as a doorway into a new realm of understanding. What feels like “just talking” is actually world-building, and in that powerful space, you get to be the main character. I’ll tailor my approach to your presence, story and goals.
Therapy with me is a time to be curious about the human experience and how you’re moving through it. Your job is to arrive to our sessions with authenticity and an open heart and mind. I’ll do that too but will also bring theory, methodology and a little humour or kindness.
How does therapy work?
Through offering clinical support for almost 20 years and teaching helping methodologies at the university level for 12 years, I’m well-versed and experienced in “doing therapy.” As I listen, I’ll ask questions and offer methods of inquiry that I think best fit your need, but this is a dynamic and ever changing process. These are my “go to” ways of providing support, based on what I’ve seen work with people of all walks of life.
-
I’m a sex-positive sex therapist which means I understand love and intimacy as building blocks of who we are. I can help you understand your sex life, gender expression, relational patterns and what love means to you. While sex therapy is unregulated in BC, my training and education meets AASECT (American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists) standards.
-
I’m trained at an advanced level of narrative therapy, so I know how to help you deconstruct the stories of your life to better understand what happened to you and then reconstruct things in a way that feels more accurate for who you are and want to become.
-
I’m certified in Internal Family Systems therapy, which means I know how to greet every part of you with curiosity and compassion, and can teach you how to do that with your loved ones, too. This work is ideal for healing trauma and relationships.
-
Using EFT, I help individuals and couples understand the emotional patterns beneath conflict, distance, and disconnection. By slowing down and working with these deeper emotions, we create greater security, stronger relationships, and more authentic ways of connecting with yourself and others.
-
With ACT, I help people develop greater psychological flexibility so they can respond to life's challenges with more intention and less struggle. Rather than trying to eliminate difficult thoughts or emotions, we learn to make room for them while taking meaningful action guided by your values.
-
This research-backed approach to couples therapy is one of the most influential approaches in couples therapy right now. I use some of their findings to help people to understand helpful and unhelpful patterns in their relationship.
-
Healing isn't just a cognitive process, our bodies hold our stories, too. Yoga-informed psychotherapy combines traditional talk therapy with mindfulness, breath, and body awareness to help you regulate your nervous system, deepen self-awareness, and reconnect with yourself.
And yes, we can talk about sex
Your sexuality is part of your human experience, and is one of the richest sites of identity creation. It is worth understanding and exploring what that means to you, whether “problems” or dysfunctions have arisen or not.
I take a sex-positive approach that welcomes curiosity, pleasure, desire, and erotic exploration without assuming there is one “normal” way to experience sexuality, relationships, or intimacy.
You are the expert on your own body and sexuality. My role isn't to tell you what your sex life or relationship should look like. I’ll help you understand and explore your own values, desires, boundaries, and choices, and how these things change over time. Consent, mutual respect and safety are foundational to my work.
I welcome the full diversity of sexualities, genders, bodies, abilities, and relationship structures, and I believe sexuality remains an important part of our lives across the lifespan.
Sex therapy can be a place to explore:
Desire & intimacy: mismatched desire, erotic connection, and feeling close again.
Sex & pleasure: discovering what you want, what feels good, fantasies, and erotic interests.
Communication & relationships: talking about sex, needs, boundaries, agreements, and recurring patterns.
Sexual shame & embodiment: developing a more compassionate and confident relationship with your body and sexuality.
Sexual & relationship diversity: exploring gender, sexuality, kink, and different ways of relating. No judgment here.
Changes & transitions: navigating shifts in sexuality, relationships, identity, aging, menopause, illness, divorce, and other life transitions.
(but we don’t have to only talk about sex)
Therapy is a space for you to share what is on your mind, feeling heavy on your heart, or feeling unsettled in your gut.
Things I regularly support people with are life transitions between one state of being and the next (the deep dark woods referenced in the Hero’s Journey), difficulties with self concept and identity, and feelings of fatigue, burnout or numbness.
We always start with where you’re at, how you’re feeling that day, and what you want to work on. I know how to hold space for it all.
Work with me
Therapy is available for those living in BC and Ontario.
Coaching is available worldwide.
-
THERAPY
Individuals: $170/50 mins, $235/75 mins
Couples/people in relationship: $250/75 mins
SOMATIC THERAPY
Individuals: $170/50 mins, $235/75 mins
Couples/people in relationship: $250/75 mins
DIRECT BILLING AVAILABLE FOR:CANADA LIFE/GREAT WEST LIFE
FNHA
GREEN SHIELD
MEDAVIE
SUNLIFE
TELUS HEALTH -
Adults navigating identity, relationship transitions, and personal growth.
Couples/throuples/poly groups seeking deeper connection and intimacy or exploring sexuality.
People exploring meaning, purpose, and embodiment.
First responders, helping professionals, caregivers, care workers.
People experiencing burnout, especially “high achievers” and eldest daughters.
People experiencing perimenopause.
Students, especially those wondering if they’re on the right path.
Those experiencing heart break.
-
Master of Social Work (University of Victoria).
Bachelor of Social Work with Distinction, Academic Gold winner (University of Regina).
Registered Social Worker (BC College of Social Workers).
Narrative Therapy (Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy).
Internal Family Systems (Internal Family Systems Institute).
Sex & Relationship Therapy (University of Guelph).
Sa̲n'yas Indigenous-Specific Anti-Racism Training (Provincial Health Services Authority).
Emotion Focused Therapy (Sue Johnson).
Registered Yoga Teacher (YYoga Vancouver, Yoga Alliance).
Yin Teacher Training (Bernie Clark, Vancouver).
I’ve known Leanne for over 10 years, first as her student and now as a colleague in private practice. She creates an affirming, sex-positive space for couples and individuals across a wide range of relationship structures and identities. Her ability to combine evidence-based therapy with openness, curiosity, and a constantly non-judgmental approach makes her an exceptional clinician for clients seeking support with intimacy, communication, and sexual wellbeing. I haven’t figured out how to use humour in sessions the way she can, but I’m working on it!
-RB
