Professional support, with warmth and humanity
About Leif Lawson — counsellor in Sydney.
I believe good therapy begins with feeling heard-not assessed, rushed or reduced to a label.
Meet Leif
Founder & Lead Counsellor
My role is to offer a calm, confidential space where you can speak freely and make sense of what may feel overwhelming, repetitive, or difficult to put into words.
I believe meaningful change begins with understanding. Many of the struggles we experience in adulthood are shaped not only by what is happening in the present, but also by earlier experiences, relationships, and patterns that may sit outside our awareness. A psychodynamic approach informs much of my work, helping clients explore these deeper layers while developing greater insight, self-compassion, and choice in how they move forward.
Sessions are collaborative, practical, and down to earth. Alongside psychodynamic thinking, I draw on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), somatic approaches, emotion-focused work, and trauma-informed counselling. Together, we look with curiosity at your experiences while keeping sight of the changes you want in your everyday life.
My couples work is informed by completed Level 1 and Level 2 training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, alongside ongoing professional development with The Couples Institute in areas including affair recovery, relationship repair, communication, and strengthening emotional connection.
My continuing professional development also includes specialist training in perinatal loss through the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE) and The Perinatal Loss Centre, Mental Health First Aid instruction, CBT, and ongoing study of ADHD and autism within relationships.
I am fully registered and insured with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and remain registered in the United Kingdom with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), with professional experience across both Australia and the UK.
Alongside private practice, I work as a Student Counsellor at St Andrew's College, supporting university-aged young adults as they navigate the opportunities and challenges that often accompany this stage of life. Many are living away from home for the first time, managing academic pressures, exploring identity, building relationships, and finding their place in the world. It is a privilege to support students during such an important period of growth, transition, and self-discovery.
A Little About My Journey
My path into counselling began in Scotland through my work with Home-Start UK, supporting mothers, babies, and young families. Witnessing both the challenges and resilience within family life sparked a deeper interest in understanding people's stories and the ways relationships shape us throughout our lives.
I completed my counselling training at Simpson House in Edinburgh before qualifying as a therapist with Human Development Scotland.
After working within not-for-profit services in Edinburgh, I moved into private practice in the city's West End. Our family journey then took us to Oxford, where I continued my work from The Practice Rooms.
Today, I am back home in Sydney, working from Newtown and living on Sydney's North Shore. While my practice is now firmly rooted in Australia, I continue to work online with clients across Australia and the UK. One of the unexpected gifts of modern therapy is the ability to maintain meaningful therapeutic relationships across distance, and it remains a privilege to support people wherever they call home.
I bring more than professional training into the therapy room. I bring a life lived.
I have experienced divorce, raised two sons, moved countries, rebuilt after loss, and found love again later in life. I have known uncertainty, grief, change, and the challenge of starting again. These experiences do not make your story the same as mine, but they help me meet it with humility, warmth, and a genuine respect for what it takes to keep going when life feels difficult.
The practice welcomes people of all genders, identities, backgrounds, cultures, and relationship structures.
Why I Began The Therapy Practice Sydney
Therapy that feels genuinely human.
I started this practice because I believe therapy works best when it feels genuinely human.
Life rarely unfolds exactly as we imagined. Relationships change. Families grow and shift. Careers take unexpected turns. Loss, uncertainty, and questions about identity can leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves and from the life we hoped to be living.
In those moments, it can help to sit with someone who is willing to listen carefully, understand your story, and hold space for both the pain and the possibility that exist together.
For me, therapy is not about having all the answers. It is about building a relationship that allows you to better understand yourself, reconnect with your strengths and values, and move toward the life you want to create.
The Therapy Practice Sydney was created as a place where you can bring your whole self — complicated, unfinished, uncertain, and human — and be met with warmth, honesty, curiosity, and genuine care.
Qualifications & professional development
- Postgraduate Diploma in Human Relations & Counselling — UK
- 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy — Levels 1 and 2
- The Couples Institute — relationship repair and affair recovery
- Perinatal loss training — Centre of Perinatal Excellence and The Perinatal Loss Centre
- CBT training
- ASD and ADHD within relationships — ongoing study
- Registered with the ACA and BACP
Next step
