Welcome to my page. Most of my clients call me ‘Leo’. I work in an integrative way, and understand myself as a steward of a safe space in which the intimate process of transformation can unfold as it is natural to you.
I believe that we need to be witnessed before we can take the next step, especially when we suffer, worry or feel the need to grow. To be safely contained, to dissolve what no longer works, to safely re-arrange how we relate to our life and the world, and to find ourselves again.
I am in this contained space together with my clients, equally involved until lasting inner change emerges for you. Often, feeling better is not so much about fixing a problem, but more about growing bigger than it. Easier said than done! To do so, we may work and journey together.
Like many therapists, I come with my own story of having worked through suffering. My life was marked by many twists and turns before stepping into this calling.
I have been an entrepreneur for almost a decade, a pre-school teacher, a designer and researcher, then came a very difficult transformative period and everything changed. I went through a period of loss and change, focused on fine art and my own therapy. Finally, and not without resistance on my part, I found my way to stepping into therapeutic work. I still paint and write too, and am engaged in promoting mental wellbeing in society.
I believe that it is the combination of such experience, safe authenticity, warm compassion, and real understanding, that helps. It can be good to understand that who you meet knows from personal experience what suffering can be like, and that it is possible to find a different way of being.
My hope is that one day you want to say to me: “Leo, I don’t need your support anymore.”
Experience
Harvard Medical School & McLean Hospital – Posttraumatic Stress and related disorders, Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) Seminar
2026
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) in training in Helsinki
2026-2028
Somatic Trauma Therapy Research
2025
Jungian Therapy & Analytic practice
Lectures & seminars from the International School of Analytical Psychology (ISAP) and the C .G. Jung Institute Zurich (CGJIZ)
2024 – ongoing
Advising for Lapinlahti-säätiö sr (foundation),
Promoting crisis-home mental health services, inclusive arts and cultural heritage efforts
2025
Art Therapy (multimodal) and Inner-Parts Work
2023-2025
(BA/MA) Aalto University – Art/Design & Psychology
2021-2025
Independent Artist
latest solo exhibition: ‘Tender Madness’ Dec. 2024
Moved from Germany to Finland in 2019
2015
I owned and led a construction and architectural design firm specializing in alternative, sustainable housing solutions and services, and consulted municipalities, organizations and individuals.
Continuing Education & Ethics
My aim is to acquire and upkeep well rounded knowledge and experience of myself and of new developments concerning human wellbeing. I continuously advance my training in regular seminars in the fields of psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry.
To avoid biases as best as possible, and to provide good care, I continue to receive regular supervision in which confidentiality remains intact.
It is important to me to maintain a high level of professional ethical competence. This includes that I may refer clients that do not experience adequate progress with me to other professionals.
Like flowers that bloom in unexpected places, every story unfolds with beauty and resilience, revealing hidden wonders.