Balanced Plate Consulting
Leadership and Wellness Programs for Today's Workplace
Deborah Friend Wilson, CPC
After more than two decades in marketing and communications for global consumer and technology brands, Deborah Friend Wilson transitioned her passion for public-facing communications into a career of mental health and wellness education and advocacy. She studied at the University of Paris, La Sorbonne and holds a BA in psychology with an emphasis on organizational behavior. An entrepreneur and innovator at heart, she co-founded and operated a successful public relations and marketing agency in Seattle for clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and subsequently served as a communications consultant and freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2016, she transitioned from a public facing corporate career to one focused on social science and mental health advocacy.
Spurred on by Covid-19 global pandemic and its ongoing trauma impact on social and interpersonal dynamics, she founded a management consulting practice to address the transformative effects of Covid-19 on workers in the hospitality industry. She is a strong advocate for the reduction of mental health stigma in the restaurant industry and believes that workers are in desperate need for mental health services and wellness support. She has been able to apply the most current research in mental health and social science theory to her work with individuals and hospitality organizations in a Covid-19 world.
Jackie Leibsohn, Ph.D.
Dr. Jackie Leibsohn has been a practicing psychologist for more than 30 years. In her experience counseling over 1500 individuals, she has developed an in-depth understanding of why employees are underperforming at work, taking leave of absences, bringing toxicity to the workplace, and eventually wanting to leave. She teaches managers and leaders how to communicate confidently and effectively. In private practice, she also helps people with depression, anxiety, alcohol/drug dependency & recovery, disordered eating, codependency, life transitions, and career exploration.
She graduated from the American Psychological Association Accredited Doctoral program at Colorado State University specializing in Counseling/Clinical Psychology. In addition to being a personal counselor, she is Professor Emeritus at Seattle University where she taught graduate level counselors and supervised professional counselors for 30 years. Dr. Leibsohn is also a professional keynote speaker and author of the 1999 book Basic Counseling Responses which has been used as a standard clinical counseling textbook for thousands of mental health counseling graduate students.
