Meet Leif

We are all in this
TOGETHER!

Internationally-recognized author, educator, transformational coach, experiential psychotherapist, and avid lover of nature and animals, Leif Hallberg, MA, LPC, LCPC guides people on journeys of heart, mind, body, and soul – exploring the realms of mindful and embodied presence, conscious awareness, and heartfelt connection.

Leif’s 25+ years of clinical practice working at the intersection of physical and mental health as a sought-after complex case mental health diagnostician has given her a nuanced understanding of the complicated network of systems impacted by lifestyle, stress, attachment, and trauma.

Weaving together her extensive training and experience in depth, psychodynamic, and humanistic psychology, rites of passage, expressive arts, somatic or embodied awareness, mindfulness, systems and attachment theory, and holistic health and wellness, Leif gracefully combines centuries old practices with cutting-edge science, crafting a super-charged approach to coaching that is effective, powerful, and truly life-changing.

Leif infuses everything she does with an unstoppable belief in the power of relationship, humility, and open-hearted authenticity. Over years of experience and practice, Leif has melded together her experiences, her knowledge, and her own unique personality into a style that is captivating, engaging, surprising, and contagious.

As an only child with adventurous parents, I grew up unusually. My young life was spent at the put ins and take outs of America’s wildest and most remote rivers, in Yosemite, Joshua Tree and the Eastern Sierra, in Baja, on a 600-acre horse ranch in northern California, and everywhere in between. My parents built our homes in inaccessible places – places where cars couldn’t go. We lived without running water or electricity. I was homeschooled, learning experientially and on the go. I spent most of my time outside in nature with animals and READING.

Horses came into my world early. Almost immediately they became my family. My community. My friends. I learned how to be human through my relationship with horses. I met my horse Suzy Q when I was about 12. She was my best friend and my grounding and stablizing protector throughout all of life’s adventures. We were together for 30 years, parting (only in the physical sense) when she passed away in 2014 at the age of 35. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her.

My first career was as a horse trainer and riding instructor. But, after I experienced a life-changing event with one of my riding lesson clients, I realized there was a power in the horse-human relationship that far exceeded my knowledge or understanding. It was then I decided I needed to go to college.

It was 1996 and I had never heard of “equine-assisted therapy”. I figured I would go to college to learn more about people and somehow combine that with my knowledge of horses and that would lead me somewhere cool.
In typical “Leif” fashion I chose Prescott College where the motto is “education is a journey not a destination”.

Prescott College allowed me to explore and develop my passions and interests. I dove headfirst into ecopsychology, depth, psychodynamic, somatic psychology, art therapy, and systems theory. I studied Jung, Freud, Joseph Campbell, Carlos Castaneda, Joanna Macy, and many others. I immersed myself in integrative (whole person) wellness and the mind-body connection. I studied rites of passage and breathwork, and learned healing techniques to move stuck or trapped energy through the body. I became a trained experiential facilitator. I traveled internationally to better understand how culture and gender impact connection. I worked on a locked psychiatric ward and in the prison system with people incarcerated for murder to see if connection could exist even in the darkest places. I learned a whole lot about trauma – both personally and professionally. And I spend lots and lots of time in nature and with animals, exploring how beings communicate and share connection.

And it was here that I met Barbara Rector, the woman many consider to be the “grandmother” of the movement that would include horses in mental health and learning. Meeting Barbara set my life on a clear course.

Shortly after I finished my undergraduate studies in 1999, I founded and directed a non-profit, The Esperanza Center, which was dedicated to connecting people back to themselves, to animals, and to the earth. We provided gang mitigation services within the juvenile prison system on the Salt-River Pima Maricopa Indian community. We also worked with men rehabilitating after being released from life sentences in the state and federal prison system. We invited group homes serving people diagnosed with severe mental illness to come to our facility to spend time with us and the animals. We provided family reunification services to families separated by child protective services due to child prostitution, drugs, and abuse. We worked with inner city school children introducing them to nature and outdoor activities. We taught swift water rescue to Dineh elders and leaders of the Navaho nation to help shift deeply held fears of the river and reduce the rate of drownings on the reservation.
It was powerful, life-changing work.

Eventually I went back to college again to get my Master’s degree in counseling/psychology with an emphasis in depth psychology, experiential psychotherapy, and integrative wellness.