About Me
My name is Thiago Leão. I'm originally from Brazil. My name can be strange to pronounce if this is the first time you see it - however, I guarantee it's pretty straightforward.
I am a Psychotherapist and Licensed Professional Counselor based in Denver, Colorado.
My approach is based on existentialism, Buddhist psychology, and psychodynamic depth psychology. To this end, I have accumulated experience working in hospitals, emergency psychiatry settings, as a co-responder with EMS, and several different outpatient and forensic settings.
I do not approach psychological practice from a manualized point of view. Instead, I practice psychology synergistically, incorporating existentialism, Buddhist (Dharma) psychology, and a psychodynamic approach.
This unique combination tends to produce a lot of movement and transformation where needed, which can happen very quickly. At the same time, it can elicit areas of more profound work that may require more extended support. Each journey is unique. I believe that if given the appropriate environment, humans can produce their own sense of strength and agency. And that’s what I hope to provide with my practice.
The name of my practice – The Primary Witness –refers to old Zen and Buddhist stories. The Primary Witness is the one that’s connected with watching all of our experience, versus the Secondary Witness, which is busy with the noise, disturbances and confusion. My practice and the Primary Witness is about transforming confusion into sanity- or brilliant sanity as it would be called in the Dharma.
If existential conflict, the unconscious, and waking up sound interesting to you, I would be honored to meet you and see how we can work together.