Hi, my name is Leena Mehta, and I’m a registered clinical counsellor (#19428) based in Burnaby, specializing in nervous system regulation, somatic therapy, and identity‑aware support for high‑achieving women.
My work focuses on helping women who carry a great deal; emotionally, culturally, and professionally, and who often feel overwhelmed, overextended, or disconnected from themselves. Let’s work together so you can feel more connected to yourself.
I integrate evidence‑based somatic practices, trauma‑informed care, and culturally attuned counselling to help clients regain control, soften high activation, and rebuild a sense of internal calm. My approach is warm, grounded, and collaborative, with an emphasis on practical tools that support emotional regulation.
I work with high-achieving women who are navigating burnout, anxiety, perfectionism, cultural pressure, and the emotional labour that comes with being highly capable. My role is to help them reconnect with their bodies, reduce cognitive overload, and create space for a life that feels sustainable.
I work with high‑achieving women who are carrying more than their nervous systems were designed to hold. Many of my clients are deeply capable, responsible, and driven, yet privately navigating overwhelm, burnout, perfectionism, or a mind that never seems to quiet. As a South Asian therapist, I welcome people from all walks of life, especially BIPOC and 2SLGBTQI+.
I support women who:
I also work with high-achieving women, including women in healthcare, business, and law. I also support international and graduate students, who often face unique layers of cultural pressure, performance expectations, and emotional labour.
My clients tend to be women who look “fine” on the outside but feel overstretched on the inside, women who want to feel grounded, steady, and more like themselves again.
If you see yourself in any of this, you’re not alone. You’re exactly who I help.
My approach includes somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, and identity‑aware counselling to help high-achieving women move from overwhelm or feeling stuck to being more themselves. I work from the understanding that many high‑achieving women don’t struggle because they’re incapable; rather, they struggle because their nervous systems are carrying a lot of pressure, responsibility, and emotional labour, and it’s too much.
Sessions are collaborative, paced, and grounded. Together, we explore what’s happening in both the mind and the body, using practical tools that help clients feel more in control, track internal activation, and strengthen emotional regulation. I integrate somatic practices, grounding techniques, and cognitive work to help clients reconnect with themselves in a meaningful and empowering way.
My work is trauma‑informed and culturally attuned. I pay close attention to how cultural expectations, identity pressure, and lived experience shape the nervous system. This allows us to work not only with issues, but with the deeper patterns that keep clients stuck in cycles of burnout, perfectionism, or low self-esteem
At its core, my approach is about helping clients feel more regulated, more connected, and more able to move through their lives with clarity and self‑trust.
Sessions with me are steady, collaborative, and paced in a way that supports your nervous system. Clients often arrive carrying a lot; responsibility, pressure, emotional labour, cultural expectations, and my role is to help you set it down, even briefly, so your system can slow down, breathe and regulate again.
You can expect a mix of somatic grounding, nervous system regulation tools, and cognitive work that helps clients feel more present and less overwhelmed. We pay attention to what’s happening in your body, not just your thoughts, so clients can notice and track what happens internally and learn techniques to help them so they don’t feel stuck.
Sessions move at your pace. There is no pressure to perform, explain everything perfectly, or “have it all together.” Instead, we focus on what feels manageable, supportive, and grounding in the moment. Many clients describe the experience as feeling seen, understood, and finally able to slow down without guilt.
My approach is warm, structured, and trauma‑informed. I hold space for your identity, culture, and lived experience, and I help you develop practical tools you can use outside of session; at work, school, in relationships, and in moments when you feel overwhelmed or when your body starts to feel tense.
The goal is simple:
To help you feel more regulated, more connected, and more like yourself again.
As a Burnaby therapist for women and couples, I focus on meeting you where you are and working at your pace alongside you with compassion, kindness, and curiosity. As your counsellor, I have no agenda, assessment, or evaluation to complete. I remained attuned to how you are feeling and check in with you each session. My goal is for you to leave each counselling session feeling a little better, or lighter. I specialise in supporting high-achieving women and provide therapy for women who feel stuck or overwhelmed.
As a Burnaby therapist for women, I design counselling sessions to meet your needs and goals every step of the way. I focus on both your past and your current struggles, exploring how your attachment style, needs, and fears impact your life today. Many high‑achieving women carry emotional stress in their bodies and relationships, and my work includes support for overwhelmed high achievers. Together, we look at the patterns that keep you feeling stuck or overwhelmed and begin building clarity, regulation, and understanding through trauma‑informed counselling for women.
As a Burnaby therapist for women and couples, I recognize that we are social beings wired for connection. Some pain and hurt you experience stems from relationships with family, friends, or your partner. As a result, some women feel disconnected from others and themselves. These women may benefit from trauma counselling or depression counselling. For clients navigating overwhelm, I provide stress management therapy for women and counselling for burnout in professional women.
As a Burnaby therapist for women and couples, I believe all individuals can heal from past abuse, trauma, and current struggles. I work with high-achieving women to shift negative core beliefs and to cultivate self-compassion and self-kindness. I use Somatic Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, or EMDR when supporting women to process trauma or distressing experiences. I use Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy when supporting couples in Burnaby.
As a Burnaby therapist for women and couples, I encourage you to be curious in our sessions. I’m curious to learn more about your experiences, thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. I want to understand where you feel stuck, low, or overwhelmed. I also want to learn more about your self-talk, view of self, and your relationship with yourself. We work together to identify patterns in behaviour in a non-judgmental, compassionate, and safe space in Burnaby and online.
As a Burnaby therapist for women and couples, I understand the importance of belonging, even when looking or feeling different. As a BIPOC or 2SLGBTQI+, you may find that your voice isn’t the loudest, and as a result, you are left feeling unheard and unseen. In counselling, you will feel heard and seen in every session. I support all clients in a safe, non-judgmental, inclusive space in Burnaby and online. As a British Indian, I’m familiar with both British and Indian culture.
My path into counselling has been shaped by both my professional training and my lived experience as a woman of colour navigating multiple cultures, expectations, and identities. I grew up learning to take responsibility, stay composed, and anticipate others' needs, skills that helped me succeed academically and professionally but also created patterns of overfunctioning, self‑silencing, and dysregulation.
After completing my second master’s degree, I volunteered overseas; a short trip that became three years of living and working across Vietnam, Cambodia, Brazil, Paraguay, and South Africa. Those experiences broadened my perspective and deepened my understanding of how culture, identity, and environment shape the nervous system.
My counselling journey began in Australia and continued in New Zealand, where I supported women from diverse cultural backgrounds through a range of challenges. These experiences deepened my understanding of how identity, migration, and lived experience shape the nervous system and continue to inform my culturally attuned work today.
In Canada, I worked as a counsellor in a First Nation school and later in not‑for‑profit agencies across Hope, Chilliwack, and Langley. I supported women, and youth through trauma, abuse, stress, and relationship challenges, and I supervised counsellors and graduate students. These experiences deepened my understanding of how culture, community, and lived experience shape the nervous system and continue to inform my attuned, trauma‑informed approach today.
High‑achieving women often seek counselling that is not only clinically sound but attuned to the realities of their lives: multiple responsibilities, high expectations, emotional labour, and the pressure to stay composed even when things feel overwhelming.
Women choose this practice because they want:
Evidence‑based modalities like EMDR, DBT and somatic therapy that address stress, anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, and overwhelm.
Someone familiar with overachieving, like having more than one master's degree.
Support that goes beyond talk therapy and helps regulate the body’s stress responses with somatic therapy.
A calm, safe space where you can pause, reflect, and reconnect with yourself.
A therapeutic relationship that is warm, direct, and focused on helping you live your best life.
As a South Asian counsellor, growing up in an Indian household, I understand the cultural pressures and expectations many South Asian women experience.
You set the pace, the focus, and the direction of our work. A client‑led approach honours your autonomy, your lived experience, and your capacity to know what feels right for you. My role is to walk beside you, not ahead of you.
High‑achieving women often carry anxiety, overwhelm, and chronic tension in ways that are invisible to others but deeply felt in their bodies. As your Burnaby therapist, I offer a trauma‑informed, somatic‑based approach designed to meet these experiences with care, kindness, and respect.
High‑achieving women often navigate systems, expectations, and pressures that were never designed with their wellbeing in mind. As your Burnaby therapist your lived experience, identities, and social context are central to our work. Power dynamics are acknowledged, your autonomy is prioritized, and your voice leads the process.
201-3701 Hastings Street Burnaby V5C 2H6
(604) 997-4757/ info@ateasecounseling.ca
Open Monday to Saturday
