Something in you already knows this story isn’t finished.
You’re right.
Leela Mental Health is a therapy practice in Palo Alto for anxiety, trauma, burnout, and OCD, in person and across California by telehealth. For people who’ve been holding it together long enough that they’ve forgotten what it felt like not to.
Who We Help
You’ve gotten very good at knowing which parts of yourself belong in which room.
Anxiety & High-Achieving Exhaustion
The kind that wears the mask of ambition. You’ve carried it so long that resting feels dangerous, as if stopping would make everything fall apart, including the version of you people depend on..
CBT · DBT · Somatic Approaches
Trauma & Intergenerational Patterns
EMDR · Trauma-Informed CBT · Family Systems
Family, Culture & Identity
The particular work of building a self when two cultures have each claimed some of your shape — and neither has claimed all of it. The work isn’t choosing between them. It is becoming something that is entirely your own.
Family Systems · DBT · Culturally Informed Therapy
“Our clients are not people who have given up. They are people who have been working harder than most, for longer than was ever fair — and are ready to work differently.”
The name comes from a Sanskrit word for the way life unfolds — a life as enacted authorship. Not what happens to you. Something written, moment by moment, from exactly where you are standing.
Leela Mental Health was built because the Bay Area has no shortage of therapists — and a deep shortage of spaces where the particular complexity of building a life here is actually understood. Not just accommodated. Understood.
We work with South Asian and East Asian communities, immigrant families, and people navigating collectivist cultures — the weight of family honor, the grief of a migration that was supposed to be only a gain, the particular exhaustion of being the one who holds it together across two countries and three generations. The Bay Area has a particular shape of this weight. We know it. Here, asking for help does not break anything.
Clinically Rigorous
Every modality at Leela has an evidence base — EMDR, CBT, DBT, ERP, and Family Systems. Tested methods, applied with intention. The modality follows the person. Not the other way around.
Every Life Arrives in Context
The family system. The cultural background. The migration story. The gap between who someone was raised to be and who they are becoming. That context is not background to the clinical work. It is where the work begins. You do not have to explain any of it here.
In the language it happened in.
Many clients carry things that took shape in a language that does not translate cleanly into English. Hindi and Bengali are available when they are needed. What is always available is a room where the whole story fits.
Care that isn’t rushed.
A careful caseload. Thoughtful availability. A practice where every client is actually known. The work here is specific to you — and it is not hurried.
What brings people here is rarely just one thing.
Anxiety & Burnout
The kind that lives underneath a life that looks, from every angle, completely fine. The hypervigilance. The inability to actually rest. The feeling that stopping means failing.
Trauma & EMDR
For experiences that left a mark the world expected you to walk away from. EMDR works at the level where memory is stored — not just recounted.
Depression
The kind that lives underneath a life that looks completely fine — because you built the fine life on top of it, and it takes everything to maintain the surface.
ADHD in Adults & Teens
For people who spent years being told they weren’t trying hard enough — when the truth was the world wasn’t built for how their brain works. This is the support that was always missing.
IVF & Fertility
The grief, uncertainty, and emotional labor of fertility treatment rarely gets the space it deserves. This is that space — without timelines, and without the expectation that you hold it together.
Couples & Family
The patterns that protect us in one relationship follow us into every relationship. Family Systems work helps untangle which patterns are yours, which were inherited, and which still serve you.
South Asian & Multicultural
For South Asian, East Asian, and immigrant community members navigating the weight of collectivist cultures — duty, family honor, the cost of need, and the profound work of becoming without erasing where you came from.
You don’t need to know how the story ends before you make the call.
The Team
The people you’d be working with.
Leela was started because the existing options kept asking South Asian and immigrant clients to explain themselves before the real work could begin. Every clinician receives ongoing training and consultation in the communities we serve.
Moitreyee Chowdhury
LMFT 121934 · LPCC 9238 · EMDR Trained
Couples · Individual · Family · Trauma
Moitreyee started Leela after years of watching South Asian and immigrant couples get asked to explain themselves before anyone actually listened. Her couples work draws on CBT, DBT, Family Systems, and trauma-focused approaches, but it always begins with what each person walked in already carrying. She studied fine arts in Delhi, built and fabricated puppets for stage productions in Germany, and has practiced in California for over two decades. She is also a published poet. Sessions in English, Hindi, and Bengali.
Neeraja Muthal
AMFT 144185 Supervised by Moitreyee
Couples · Individual · Family · Trauma
I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. Before becoming a therapist, I spent many years as a computer engineer but felt drawn to a more human-centered profession. That led me to earn my Master's in Counseling Psychology from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. I have experience working with adults navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, work-related stress, couple conflicts, parenting challenges, and major life transitions. My approach is collaborative and integrative, drawing from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, client-centered, solution-focused, and relational approaches.
Teresa Gamez DePerez
LMFT 152063 · Spanish · Family · Trauma · Couples · Individual
Teresa Gamez is a trauma-informed mental health therapist who provides compassionate, culturally responsive therapy for adults and couples in California. She supports clients navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, grief and loss, difficult life transitions, and recurring family or generational patterns. Her approach focuses on creating a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients can better understand themselves, develop healthier coping strategies, strengthen relationships, and build emotional resilience. She provides therapy in both English and Spanish.
We make referrals straightforward — and we close the loop.
Leela Mental Health is a referral partner for psychiatrists, primary care physicians, school counselors, and HR professionals across the Bay Area. We work with adults, teens, and families navigating anxiety, trauma, cultural stress, ADHD, depression, and major life transitions.
We are out-of-network with most insurers — which means your clients avoid prior authorizations and session limits. We provide detailed superbills for OON reimbursement and work with Lyra Health EAP and Wellfleet SHIP.
We respond to every referral within 48 hours. We confirm whether we are a fit. We follow up when we aren’t — because the referral relationship is not one-way.
Refer a Client
Phone (650) 206-9448
Email information@leelamentalhealth.com
Availability Currently accepting new clients
For urgent referrals, call directly. For non-urgent, email works well — we respond within one business day.
We aim to respond to all referrals within 48 hours
What you might be wondering before you reach out.
Do you accept insurance?
How much does therapy cost?
Do you offer online therapy?
What therapy approaches do you use?
Do you offer therapy in Hindi or Bengali?
How do I get started?
What should I expect in my first session?
Who does Leela Mental Health work with?
Your right to a Good Faith Estimate: Under the No Surprises Act, you have the right to receive a written cost estimate before your first session. We provide this automatically — no surprises, ever. Read the full notice ➞
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Free, confidential 24/7 support for people in distress. Call or text — they will answer.
Crisis Text Line
Free 24/7 text-based crisis support from a trained counselor.
Emergency Services
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.