
Savannah Raynor Lese,
MS, LMFTA, RYT-200 She/Her/Hers
Outpatient Psychotherapist
Sav's Specialization
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Gender Affirmation & Medical Family Therapy
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Religious Trauma & Moral Injury Forgiveness
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Blended Family Pre-commitment Preparation
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LGBTQIA Minority Stress Support
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Trauma Informed Yoga & Meditation
Sav's Roots
Sav found love working with children and families in her undergraduate at East Carolina University, studying Recreational Therapy. Sav became interested in the significance of relationships and mental health, and double minored in human development and family sciences and psychology. Sav worked in various medical settings applying her 200hr yoga license, mindfulness, and adventure recreation to the psychological healing of individuals after medical and mental traumas.
Hoping to better understand the influence of one’s social and emotional relational systems, Sav pursued her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy at East Carolina University. Sav found a passion serving members of the queer community, seeking affirming and safe relationships. Sav worked as a Behavioral Health Consultant at East Carolina University’s Family Medicine clinic and provided support to individuals and families processing complex medical and health needs. This work led to Sav’s certification in Medical Family Therapy, where she studied the biopsychosocial-spiritual approach to integrative health care.
Sav worked primarily with partners and families seeking support around sex and gender, loss/adjustment, and trauma. Sav continues to follow her love of providing mental health care to individuals that seek to learn and embrace themselves and their relationships by working towards a certification in sex therapy, specializing in queer relationship, relationships with partners that have experience sexual trauma, and individuals with medical barriers to sexual fulfillment.
Membership & Certification
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NC-Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Associate
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Yoga Alliance 200 RYT Certification
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Medical Family Therapy Certification (ECU)
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Gottman's Level 1&2 Certified
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American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy Member
Sav's Approach to Therapy
Sav’s primary theoretical orientation is grounded in the post-modern, Narrative Therapy approach. Narrative Therapy examines the rich experiences of an individual’s life and the way one shares their story with others and reflectively views it themselves. In the words of Anderson and Goolishian, “it is our responsibility as therapists to cultivate a growing awareness of the dominant (and potentially dominating) stories in our society and to develop ways of collaboratively examining the effects of those stories when we sense them at work in the lives and relationships of the people who consult with us”.
Sav’s beliefs are greatly influenced by her philosophy that all people are capable of change and growth, and deserve to feel joy in this world. Sav has used much of her teachings of yoga to ground her work with mindfulness, which is proven to help people live more fully and presently, engaged in connecting with themselves and others. Sav has used practices of mindfulness, play/filial therapy, and Internal Family Systems in her work with children and their families. Sav continues to apply her Master’s concentration of Medical Family Therapy to help individuals create Biopsychosocial-spiritual balance, as they navigate comorbidities in their encompassing health.
Sav has Level 1 & 2 Gottman Method Couples Therapy training and practice in using Emotion Focused Therapy to guide relational work with couples and families that may seek healing, understanding, or pre-commitment work. All of these empirically supported theories are systemic, which looks at how parts of a system affect one another to sustain the stability and equilibrium of the whole system.
Sav's Integration of Yoga
Five years ago Sav completed 200hr yoga teacher training at the Asheville Yoga Center to enhance her personal asana practice and utilize yoga her research as a recreational therapy student at East Carolina University. She found it was such a blessing to discover that yoga offers so much more than a physically enriching practice, but also a spiritually empowering and therapeutically healing space. Sav hopes to share some of the trauma-informed practices of meditation, nidra, yin, mindfulness, and pranayama with clients at Rooted Therapy, while sharing some of the history and empirical benefits these integrated practices have to offer.
“The most precious gift we can offer is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh


Transformation & Healing From Within

MIND
