My Story

I grew up chasing perfection. Playing the clarinet, performing, always trying to be the good girl.

But underneath it all, I was struggling.

I battled anxiety, high-functioning depression, and the pressure to constantly achieve. I went through therapy. I took medication. And while those things helped, I often felt crazy navigating a system that never really saw me.

Even some of my therapists didn’t get it..

That pain shaped me and I promised myself I’d never let anyone feel the way I did: misunderstood, broken, or dismissed.

That promise led me to pursue a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Rider University. I spent years working with teens and children in crisis across New Jersey. But then the pandemic hit. I was holding space for 40 to 50 kids at a time, and it started to break me.

I burned out HARD.

One day, sitting in my parents’ garage, feeling like I had nothing left to give, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a woman who looked genuinely happy. At first, it annoyed me. How could she feel that good when I felt this empty? But instead of turning away, I reached out. She told me she felt that good because of Reiki.

I booked a session. And that first session cracked me wide open. I cried for hours. It was like someone had peeled off layers of sadness I didn’t even know I was carrying.

That moment changed everything.

I started pouring energy back into myself. Going deeper. Listening to my guides. Doing the kind of healing work I hadn’t found in traditional systems.

Over time, I became Reiki Master attuned in Usui Reiki. My ancestral gifts began to reawaken... my Zoroastrian roots as a Persian woman stirred something ancient in me.

And I started to feel whole..

Like TRULY whole.

In 2021, I launched Leyla the Healer. Since then, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients and taught other healers how to do this work, too.

Because what I’ve learned is this: therapy alone isn’t enough.
And spiritual healing without grounding isn’t enough either.

True healing happens in all realms — emotional, mental, energetic, ancestral, physical, and spiritual. And when we honour them all, that’s where deep transformation lives.