Laarni Lei Bernardo

About Laarni Lei

As an immigrant and a person of color, Laarni is passionate about creating safe and exciting spaces for everyone who walks through her door. Laarni identifies her intersections as human – a woman, a mom, and an immigrant – all are essential in her practice. Laarni strongly believes that we thrive in safe, authentic spaces where we are seen, heard, respected and recognized, accepted and understood.
Laarni’s practice is relational, intentional, and intuitive which she integrates with various techniques and modalities. Although Laarni works adeptly with people of various ages, she makes no secret of enjoying the work she does with young people more. She works closely with families, survivors of violence and abuse, and those in need of supportive and/or clinical counselling. Laarni loves listening to your stories and is always keen on discovering and uncovering strengths and harnessing potential with you.

Laarni works with much intention and authenticity. She engages in heartfelt discussions and shares in the enthusiasm of discovering and uncovering personal strengths and boundless potential and possibilities. Laarni has degrees in Psychology and Special Education (bachelor’s), and counselling (master’s). She has worked closely with youth and families in various capacities (teacher, behaviour interventionist, youth worker) and has been working as a counsellor for 20 years. She is adept in CBT, DBT, Narrative Therapy, IPT, Adlerian, Somatic, REBT, Solution-Focused, MI, and Play Therapy. Her practice is strengths-based, culturally responsive, and trauma informed. Laarni has worked extensively with people who present with mild to severe mental health symptoms and is comfortable working with neurodivergent folk. She also speaks Tagalog fluently.

Outside of her counselling spaces, Laarni enjoys eating, cooking, and reading. She enjoys going to the gym, boxing, and running. She also recently enrolled in taekwondo and was just promoted to green stripe.