
Victoria Leister, M.S., NCC
Tori Leister, MS, NCC, has a Master’s Degree in Counseling and is a Play Therapist Mentee working under the supervision of Licensed Professional Counselor Elizabeth Campbell.
Tori offers individual counseling and family check-ins to clients aged 3-18. She describes her counseling style and presence as warm, attentive, empowering, and client-led. She works with clients experiencing anxiety, life/developmental transitions, behavioral concerns, interpersonal difficulties, and emotion dysregulation. She offers play therapy as well as strengths-based, client-focused, neurodiverse-affirming counseling and support.
Experience
Tori began her journey within the mental health field in a community mental health facility in 2022. Her experience includes an after-school intensive outpatient group counseling program for children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Through this program, clients gained valuable social, emotion regulation, coping, and life skills. Tori recognizes therapeutic relationship-building, with clients and with other members of the client’s support team, as a core determinant of client progress.
Tori also worked in a private, emotional support school — for children whose home school districts lacked the resources necessary to meet their emotional needs. This role cemented Tori’s belief in the therapeutic importance of connection over correction. She understands that all behaviors are attempts to meet unmet needs and that children can and will learn and grow in an environment of emotional safety. Tori also provided individual outpatient therapy to child and teen clients with a variety of presenting concerns.
She draws from various therapeutic approaches, including trauma-informed, attachment-based, play therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), customizing treatment to meet clients’ unique needs.
Specialties
Play Therapy
The primary task of childhood is play. Tori believes in the power of play because of its universal understanding and application, as well as the ability of play to promote healing and growth in children (and with people of all ages). Play therapy is the preferred therapy approach for children 3-12 because it offers children the space and tools to express and process difficult emotions, develop strong interpersonal relationships, problem-solve, and communicate in a developmentally-affirming way. What children cannot yet express or understand with their words, they can process through their play. In play therapy, children have the additional support of a play therapist who offers acceptance, presence, and evidence-based knowledge to empower clients toward growth and discovery.
“Toys are children’s words and play is their language.”
— Garry Landreth, Author of Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship
Adolescent Counseling
Adolescence is a time of immense physical, mental, and emotional growth. While this can be exciting for some young people, others feel overwhelmed by this stage of life. Tori’s approach to adolescent clients is considerate of this change in body and mind. One of Tori’s therapeutic strengths is tailoring therapy interventions and activities to meet clients where they are developmentally. She prioritizes creating a safe space for clients to explore their evolving identities and interpersonal relationships. Tori also provides support to parents who may feel overwhelmed or unequipped to handle their tween or teen’s emotional intensity, novelty-seeking, and desire for independence.
“Adolescence is not a period of being ‘crazy’ or ‘immature.’ It is an essential time of emotional intensity, social engagement, and creativity.”
— Daniel J. Siegel, Author of Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain
Behavioral Approaches
Tori’s background working with clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, ODD, and other behavioral concerns has provided her with a functional behavior perspective. Tori believes that every behavior is a form of communication and is an attempt to meet an unmet need (e.g. sense of belonging, sensory stimulation, emotion regulation, independence, or escape). Children and teens may not have the understanding or vocabulary to communicate their needs to adults; as a result, they seek to meet their needs on their own through behaviors (sometimes very challenging ones).
Tori has experience and knowledge in managing challenging behaviors and providing clients with alternatives. By seeking to know the person and the needs beneath presenting behavior, clients feel seen and understood, rather than invalidated and reprimanded. Clients can then explore alternative, more effective ways of expressing and meeting their needs, which reduces the functionality of challenging behaviors.