• The Road Not-Yet Traveled

    Armed with both undergrad and master’s degrees and a relentless drive, Lepa created her own map for success, only using her rear-view mirror to remind her of her resilience and strength.

  • Every Type of Client You Could Imagine

    She earned her Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) credential and started on a journey of treating nearly every type of patient and client. From inpatient to outpatient, from hospitals to group homes, from adults to school children, Lepa built a career on meeting all kinds of clients right where they are in their mental health struggle and customizing an effective care plan just for them.

  • Therapist. Wife. Mom of 3

    Outside of work, Lepa married her love – and they partnered to raise 3 strong kids of their own. This family is her priority so created the professional life she needed: She smashed together her unique life history with her insightful, action-focused professional style to create one of the city’s most in-demand therapy practices.

  • Reiki Master & Sound Healer

    There is a lot more to this expert than you think. She also put in the work to earn yet another skill. Lepa is a 9th generation Mikao Usui trained Reiki Master and certified Sound Healer.

Lepa identified gaps in treatment and care that frustrated her as a clinician and also created barriers to treatment and care for her clients. As a result, Lepa created SEW Balance: the Secret to Everyday Wellbeing, where balance is the goal. 

The SEW Balance Method provides an actionable plan for how you can mindfully improve the way you think, feel, and behave. The SEW Balance Assessment is an evidence-based online tool that measures adult wellbeing in 15 major life factor areas. 

Lepa is on a mission to shift the paradigm on mental health from a focus on dysfunction, disorders, and deficits to a positive and proactive process: Focus on what you can change and take steps toward creating your balance life.

Creating the Method

Over years of work with thousands of clients, Lepa realized she’d figured out a secret. She was developing a simple mental health method after seeing what worked – and what didn’t – to help clients improve their lives. She focused on guiding them to find balance – not perfection – and called it the SEW Balance Method (the Secret to Everyday Wellbeing is Balance).

  • All of her clients who went through the SEW Balance Method reported improvement. Every. Single. One.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic changed counseling, shifting so many clients safely online to avoid the risk of close, one-on-one appointments. But that was just the beginning.

  • The demand and need for therapy was crushing. So many people were on the waitlist: She couldn’t squeeze them into her schedule. Many of them were already struggling against society’s stigma of seeking support. Some also tried to get in with their overburdened healthcare providers, whose only options were:

    1. A prescription

    2. A referral to a therapist’s waitlist

    3. Advice (talk with a friend, read a self-help book, etc.)

The System is Broken

  • It's More Than a Diagnosis

    Even if these people were able to get help, so much of our medical model of mental health focuses solely on a person’s deficits and disorders, making them feel stuck in what’s happening TO them.

  • Mental Health Reimagined

    But Lepa knew from her own past and from her clients’ successes, that no one is going to rescue you. Your life’s path is up to you. Focusing on where you DO have power and what you CAN control, is the game changer.

  • Turn Up the Volume

    Lepa knew the SEW Balance Method worked and she wanted to amplify her work to help as many people as possible. There are only so many people you can help in a one-to-one model.

Mental health resources in your pocket

Mental health resources in your pocket

Once you know where your life needs better balance… then what? So Lepa put it all in an app! Take the assessment, learn the method, take short courses to find out how to apply it across your life. Then, repeat the method with just about any problem life throws at you. 

No excuses.

There is compassion here. But at the end of the day, there’s no room for excuses: Real change demands action.

Education and Certifications

North Carolina Licensed Clinical Social Worker (#C004793)

Duke University, Certificate from the Family Resource Coalition of North Carolina through Duke

University of South Carolina, Master’s of Social Work

Wingate University, Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology, Minor in Art

Certified in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Certified Integrative Mental Health Practitioner (CIMHP)

Certified in Dialectical and Behavioral Therapy