About Denae
Denae Leigon is a licensed marriage and family therapist with three decades of experience helping people manage stress and anxiety. She offers calm, direct guidance and focuses on building stronger communication and coping skills. Her approach is practical and client-centered, with attention to real-life changes that families and individuals face.
Before moving into independent practice she spent 19 years as a clinician and supervisor in a county children's mental health department.
Background and approach
There she led parenting classes and support groups and worked with people on improving communication and stability. She also provided therapy in Juvenile Hall and supported cases involving adoption, attachment concerns, abuse, trauma, and ADHD. Denae draws on cognitive behavioral therapy to help people notice patterns of thought and behavior that keep problems stuck.
She pairs that with an attachment-based perspective to strengthen relationships and a client-centered stance that follows each person's priorities. Sessions focus on clear, doable steps people can try between meetings. She aims to create a warm, respectful space where people can speak openly and try new ways of relating.
The work tends to move at a practical pace, with tools for managing anxiety, anger, grief, or life transitions. Denae emphasizes collaboration and steady progress rather than quick fixes. Her practice is located in California and she conducts sessions in English.
She brings steady experience and straightforward guidance for those seeking help with stress, mood, relationships, parenting challenges, addiction concerns, or coping with big life changes.
How her approaches translate to online care
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how relationships shape feelings and behavior. In a few sentences she helps people notice patterns in how they connect with others and practices new ways of relating to reduce anxiety and improve trust. Client-Centered Therapy places the client's goals first and follows each person's pace; the therapist listens closely, reflects what she hears, and helps people set the direction for their work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at thoughts and actions that maintain anxiety and teaches concrete strategies to change those patterns.Finding the right approach is part of the process. She collaborates with each person to decide which methods fit best based on their needs, goals, and preferences. That means trying techniques, checking what helps, and adjusting the plan together over time.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face work on communication and attachment. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to use video. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, follow-up questions, and practicing coping skills between sessions. These formats offer flexibility so people can access support when they need it.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- LGBT
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 32 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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