Dr. Andrea Esperat Lein holds a Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology, and an M.Ed. in Educational Psychology (specializing in the gifted), both from the University of Virginia. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Old Dominion University. She’s a licensed school psychologist in Massachusetts. Trained in the scientist-practitioner model, Andrea integrated her clinical and educational interests to focus on the social-emotional development of gifted individuals. She worked as a graduate research assistant at the National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) while also completing her clinical practicum. Her qualitative doctoral dissertation examined the lived experiences of gifted adolescents in a therapeutic residential setting. Andrea completed an APA-accredited clinical internship at CMC-Randolph Behavioral Health Center, a community mental health agency in Charlotte, NC. There she was trained to provide child, adolescent, and adult inpatient and outpatient services, psychiatric emergency assessments, adult dialectical-behavior therapy (DBT), play therapy, and school-based mental health services in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg public school system. Her post-doctoral fellowship was completed at the Center for Motivation and Change, a forward-thinking, evidence-based substance abuse residential treatment program for adults struggling with co-occurring mental health and substance use issues.

She’s evolved her traditional clinical training of the early 2000’s to incorporate a holistic, integrative approach that draws upon systems theory, humanistic-existential psychology, choice theory, developmental psychology and psychopathology, Kegan’s constructive-developmental theory, the mind-body connection, functional medicine, nutritional psychiatry, spirituality, positive psychology and positive education, as well as psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral approaches (i.e. CBT, DBT, ACT). Andrea excels at solving complex problems, targeting well-being at the individual and system levels.

Andrea has devoted the majority of her career working with gifted, twice-exceptional adolescents, young adults, and their families. Most recently, she served as the Head of School for a specialized, therapeutic college preparatory boarding school that utilized a non-medical, humanistic-existential, peer-based model to help struggling, gifted young people heal and thrive. The program’s focus went beyond mere symptom reduction and sought to cultivate lasting change without relying on clinical diagnoses, labels, or psychiatric medications. Observing remarkable transformations first-hand radically altered her beliefs about the western mainstream approach to mental health. It shaped her strong belief that psychological well-being is rooted in belonging, authenticity, and a caring community.

Andrea enjoys serving in other capacities in her community. She’s presented at national, regional, and local conferences on topics related to alternative mental health treatment, giftedness and exceptionality, and parenting. She also speaks on psychological topics that relate to the workplace, such as implicit bias, imposter syndrome, and authentic leadership. She volunteers as a faculty member and on-going mentor to a thriving community of ambitious young professionals in the DLE Leadership Experience/Gen NOW program.