Sandra Leon-Villa, PhD

Languages Spoken:

English, Spanish

Clinical Population Served:

Children, Adolescents, College Students/Early Adults, Seniors, Adults

My Approach to Therapy:

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Dr. Sandra León-Villa is a first gen, daughter of immigrants, Autistic Xicana, Activist, Liberation Psychologist. Her work primarily focuses on the treatment of trauma, BIPOC mental health, and first generation BIPOC career professionals. She has been in the mental health field for over 13 years working directly with trauma survivors and is a survivor herself. Dr. León-Villa published her research study, Exploring Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse in 2018. She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and is certified in the We RISE Yoga method, a trauma informed yoga program nd is a registered yoga teacher (200RYT). In 2020, Dr. León-Villa lobbied for legislation that would require mental health professionals to obtain cultural competency, diversity, equity, & inclusion training for license renewal, and in May 2021, Assembly Bill 327 passed & was signed into law with the support of other community organizations.

Dr. León-Villa specializes in bilingual (English/Spanish) and culturally informed psychological and neuropsychological testing of conditions including Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), ADHD, learning disorders, personality disorders, mood disorders, trauma, and in diagnostic clarity/differential diagnosis. She additionally works with immigrant communities and provides evaluations, including evaluations of extreme hardship, asylum, VAWA, and medical certifications. Dr. León-Villa served on the Executive Board of the Nevada Psychological Association (NPA) as the Diversity Chair from 2017-2019.

Dr. León-Villa earned her bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in family studies counseling from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in 2006. She later earned a master's degree in mental health counseling in 2012 from Walden University. Dr. León-Villa earned a second master's degree in psychology in 2014 and completed her doctoral training (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology at Walden University in 2016.