Founder of Lionheart Counseling
Meet Rachel Leonard, MA, LPCC
Helping people understand their stories so they can live with greater courage, congruence, and hope.
People often come to counseling looking for answers. More often, they need a place where they can slow down enough to ask better questions.
Meaningful change rarely begins with advice. It begins with compassionate curiosity.
Before we decide where you’re going, I want to understand where you’ve been—because every person makes sense within the story they’ve lived.
QUESTIONS THAT GUIDE MY WORK
“Help me understand…”
“Say more about that.”
My Story Has Shaped the Way I Listen
Long before I became a therapist, I was learning how stories shape people. My own life has unfolded across communities throughout Kentucky and Ohio, and every place has influenced the way I listen.
I’m the oldest child, a pastor’s daughter, and someone who is both neurodivergent and living with Moebius syndrome, a rare congenital condition affecting facial movement.
For years, I quietly believed I needed to prove my worth through performance, responsibility, and resilience. Over time, God invited me into a different story—one where identity was received rather than earned.
That journey changed the way I understand people. It taught me to replace “What’s wrong with me?” with “What has shaped me?”
That is the same posture I hope to offer everyone who entrusts me with their story.
Experience That Informs My Work
My understanding of transformation did not begin in graduate school.
For more than twenty years, I served in ministry, intercultural work, leadership, and long-term faith-based addiction recovery alongside children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Those years taught me that lasting change grows through safe relationships, honest reflection, compassionate accountability, and one faithful step at a time.
As a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, I’ve since had the privilege of working with hundreds of adults, couples, families, ministry leaders, people in recovery, and neurodivergent individuals.
Together, those experiences shape care that is relational, evidence-based, and attentive to the whole person.
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My work draws from attachment science, interpersonal neurobiology, family systems, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, narrative approaches, and trauma-informed care.
Rather than fitting every person into one model, I thoughtfully integrate approaches according to your story, needs, relationships, goals, and season of life. I remain committed to ongoing learning because every person deserves care that is current, thoughtful, and grounded in sound clinical practice.
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Absolutely. My Christian faith has deeply shaped how I understand dignity, hope, restoration, and wholehearted living.
When faith is meaningful to you, it can become a thoughtful and natural part of our work. It never replaces sound clinical care or overrides your goals. Instead, evidence-based therapy and Christian faith can work together in ways that honor your values, questions, and story.
If faith is not an important part of your life, you will still receive compassionate, evidence-based care centered on your goals.
A Few Things That Bring Me Joy
Outside the counseling room, I’m endlessly curious about people, stories, and the many ways God forms us throughout a lifetime.
I love reading, writing, travel, history, cultures, leadership, and new ideas. You’ll often find me searching for mountains, hiking beneath tall trees, listening to the water, or settling in with a great cup of dark roast coffee. I’m also a proud dog mom to Maxwell, my big, goofy Bernedoodle.
Most of all, the people I love make life rich. Some of my favorite moments happen around a dinner table, over coffee, or in the ordinary conversations that remind us we’re known, loved, and never meant to journey alone.
What You Can Expect
My hope is to create a space where you can finally exhale—knowing you do not have to perform, hide, or have everything figured out before you arrive.
People often leave our conversations feeling seen, understood, hopeful, and able to relate to themselves with greater compassion.
Our work may include practical tools and coping skills, but it will not stop there. Together, we’ll pursue deeper understanding, healthier relationships, greater freedom, and sustainable change.
Working Together
I provide secure virtual therapy throughout Kentucky and Ohio for adults, couples, families, children, and teens when telehealth is a good clinical fit. Future in-person counseling is planned for Greater Louisville.
Wherever we meet, my hope is the same: to create a counseling experience that feels thoughtful, personal, and deeply connected.
If you’re unsure whether virtual therapy is right for this season, we’ll talk through that together during your consultation.
Why Lionheart?
The name Lionheart reflects a vision that has been quietly unfolding throughout my own story.
It speaks to courage, restoration, identity, hospitality, and the conviction that every person is created with dignity, purpose, and immeasurable worth.
Counseling is the first expression of that vision, but it is not the whole story.
I'd Be Honored to Walk Alongside You
Whether you’re navigating stress, trauma, ADHD, recovery, relationships, ministry, or another season of becoming, you do not have to have everything figured out before reaching out.
A complimentary consultation gives us space to begin with understanding and consider whether Lionheart may be the right fit for you.