Licensed clinical professional counselor, relational identity coach, TEDx speaker, Jiu-Jitsu purple belt — and the woman who will tell you the truth about your relationships, even when it's hard to hear.
I'm Dr. Leslie Davis
If you've landed here, there's a good chance you're a woman who has it together in every area of her life — except love.
You're accomplished, self-aware, maybe even the person everyone else comes to for advice. But in your romantic relationships? You go quiet. You shrink. You give more than you receive and convince yourself that's just how love works.
It's not. And deep down, you already know that.
I've been giving relationship advice since I was thirteen.
Not because I read it in a book — because I lived it. As a child of divorce, I grew up with the absence of romantic love in the home. I spent years trying to figure out what healthy love actually looked like, chasing it through relationships that left me more confused than when I started.
That personal journey didn't derail me. It shaped me. It became the reason I've spent over two decades sitting across from women who are brilliant, bold, and somehow still choosing relationships that don't choose them back.
I understand that woman.
I was that woman.
my mission
"To help women stop confusing familiarity with love. Real love doesn't require you to shrink, silence yourself, or earn your place."
My work — whether in therapy, coaching, or speaking — is about helping her finally believe that.
What I bring to the table
I hold a PhD in Counseling and Psychological Studies from Regent University and I'm a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in both Illinois and Missouri. I'm a National Certified Counselor, a Supreme Court Approved Family and Divorce Mediator, and I have completed advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) — meaning the work we do together isn't just talk. It's grounded in some of the most rigorous relational science available.
The TEDx talk
The Black Coffee Woman
My TEDx talk, Three Ways to Stop Obsessing Over That Text, was selected for the TED Editors' Pick List — and it resonated because it named something real that women were already feeling but didn't have language for.
Out of my clinical work, I developed the identity of the Black Coffee Woman — the woman who is bold, complex, and unapologetic in every area of her life, yet somehow goes quiet in love. She's not broken. She's just never had someone name her experience out loud and show her a way through it. That's exactly what I built my platform to do.
I'm also a Heart Mom.
My son was born with a rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). That journey cracked me open in ways nothing else could.
It also led me to serve as Program Lead and Staff Therapist in the Heart Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, where I provided psychotherapy to other Heart Moms for three years through Washington University, St. Louis. I now continue that service as a Board Member of the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation.
Strength isn't the absence of hard things.
It's what you build because of them.
I'm also a Heart Mom.
My son was born with a rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). That journey cracked me open in ways nothing else could.
It also led me to serve as Program Lead and Staff Therapist in the Heart Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, where I provided psychotherapy to other Heart Moms for three years through Washington University, St. Louis. I now continue that service as a Board Member of the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation.
Strength isn't the absence of hard things.
It's what you build because of them.
I train Jiu-Jitsu — and yes, I compete.
I’ve been on the mats for a decade. I’m a purple belt and I enjoy competing. I’m also a Certified Women’s Self-Defense Instructor through the Women’s Self Defense Network.
I don’t just believe in physical safety as a concept — I train it, teach it, and live it. Because there is something that happens to a woman when she realizes her body is capable, strong, and worth defending.
That confidence doesn’t stay on the mats. It follows her home, into her relationships, into the way she uses her voice.
That’s exactly why I created Defend & Rise™ — a women’s self-defense program that meets you at the intersection of physical safety and personal power.
And yes — I love coffee.
Deeply, unapologetically, always. If you know me, you know a good cup of coffee and a real conversation are basically my love language.
It's not a coincidence that the woman I work with most — bold in life, quiet in love — is who I call the Black Coffee Woman. Strong. Complex. Not for everyone. But absolutely made for someone.
