Leonardo O'Grady

My name is Leonardo O’Grady, I am a an experienced, professionally trained psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist providing weekly therapy sessions to individuals online and in-person from the London Practice’s Oxford Circus location. I have experience within the workplace and in one-to-one counselling. I have built a broad range of experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and orientations while based in Asia, the United States and Europe. Over the past 26 years, part of my experience has included helping develop people in international high-performance organisations. Workplace dynamics can bring out the best and the worst in people, sometimes conjuring childhood traumas or dysfunctional behaviours which affect self-esteem and other aspects of personal life. Experience in these areas has led me to address the inter-connections between the triggers of anxiety that emerge in organisational or work settings and one’s early personal history, past experiences and relationships.

Recently, my experience and training have developed more broadly beyond the work environment, looking at behaviours within a wide range of contexts. Partnering with the individual to manage symptoms and sources of distress, my focus is to partner in decoding the underlying drivers of the symptoms. However, concentrating on symptoms alone may not be enough to sustain a sense of well-being in the future and to address new problems as they occur or reoccur. Building the individual’s sense of empowerment and self-determination is an important means to achieve sustained mental wellness. I believe that therapy is most effective when a partnership of equals, between the individual and therapist, is created to reduce the disempowering effects of psychological distress. This is typically done through active two-way dialogue, reflection, discovery, understanding, repair, and ultimately enablement helping build a sense of control and self-determination. I received a BA from McGill University in Canada, an MA from Johns Hopkins University in the USA, and a second MA at the University of London Goldsmiths in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy.