Meet Dr. Leesa Scott-Morrow, PhD, JD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist | Chronic Pain, Health Psychology, LGBTQ+ Affirming Care & High-Performance Wellness

Dr. Leesa Scott-Morrow is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 34 years of experience helping adults navigate the intersection of physical health, emotional well-being, identity, relationships, aging, and professional life. She is licensed in Minnesota and is also available for telehealth in PsyPACT-participating states. Her background spans clinical health psychology, behavioral medicine, chronic pain treatment, forensic psychology, research, teaching, and private practice.

Dr. Scott-Morrow earned her PhD in Clinical Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine from the University of North Texas in 1990 and her JD from Indiana University School of Law in 2002. Across more than three decades of practice, she has worked in academic medicine, Veterans Affairs, interdisciplinary pain management, research, private practice, and forensic settings. Her career has included serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, conducting clinical and research work at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center, and practicing as a clinical psychologist with HealthPartners Interventional Pain Management in the Department of Neurosciences.

Her depth of experience is particularly valuable for clients whose concerns do not fit neatly into one category. Many of the people who seek her care are managing a combination of medical symptoms, changing physical abilities, family or identity concerns, and the considerable psychological demands of sustaining excellence in a highly specialized profession or craft.

Areas of Expertise

Dr. Scott-Morrow works with adults experiencing concerns including:

• • • Chronic pain and chronic illness
    • Trigeminal neuralgia and facial pain
    • Tinnitus
    • Fibromyalgia
    • Cancer and adjustment to serious medical conditions
    • LGBTQ+ and transgender-affirming care
    • Family relationships surrounding gender identity and transition
    • Wellness and resilience in high-performance careers and crafts
    • Performing artist and musician wellness
    • Psychological and physical demands of repetitive-motion professions
    • Aging and career longevity in highly specialized fields
    • Performance pressure, perfectionism, and anxiety
    • Burnout and sustainable professional functioning
    • Major professional and life transitions

Chronic Pain, Illness & Health Psychology

Living with chronic pain or a serious medical condition can affect far more than the body. It can reshape work, relationships, independence, identity, mood, and a person’s expectations for the future. Dr. Scott-Morrow’s extensive background in clinical health psychology and behavioral medicine allows her to work at this intersection with unusual depth.

She has significant experience with individuals living with conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, facial pain, tinnitus, fibromyalgia, cancer, and other persistent or medically complex conditions. Therapy may address the emotional consequences of pain, uncertainty, changing physical abilities, medical stress, frustration with treatment, and the challenge of maintaining a meaningful life when the body is no longer responding in familiar ways.

Her work recognizes the ongoing relationship among physical health, psychological well-being, stress, behavior, relationships, identity, and quality of life.

LGBTQ+ and Trans-Affirming Therapy

Dr. Scott-Morrow also provides affirming therapy for LGBTQ+ and transgender adults, as well as support for parents, partners, and loved ones navigating identity and changes within important relationships.

Her work includes helping individuals develop greater comfort and confidence in themselves while also helping families bridge differences, navigate difficult conversations, and preserve meaningful connection. She understands that identity does not develop in isolation and that transitions can affect entire relational and family systems.

Her approach emphasizes curiosity, respect, authenticity, and the possibility of creating stronger relationships without asking individuals to compromise who they are.

Wellness & Resilience for High-Performance Crafts and Professions

One of Dr. Scott-Morrow’s distinctive areas of expertise is the wellness and resilience of people whose professions require sustained precision, repetition, concentration, and exceptionally high levels of performance.

This includes musicians and performing artists—such as orchestral musicians and pianists—whose careers depend upon the integration of physical technique, concentration, creativity, endurance, and repeated performance under demanding conditions. It also extends to professionals in fields such as accounting, corporate leadership, and other high-intensity occupations where accuracy, sustained cognitive performance, repetition, and prolonged concentration are fundamental to professional success.

For these clients, therapy is about considerably more than treating performance anxiety. Dr. Scott-Morrow helps individuals think about career longevity, resilience, physical and psychological wellness, adaptation to aging, sustainable performance, identity, perfectionism, occupational stress, and the changing relationship between the individual and their craft or profession over time.

For a pianist or orchestral musician, subtle physical changes, pain, repetitive-motion concerns, or changes in stamina can have consequences that extend well beyond discomfort; they can affect livelihood, identity, confidence, and the ability to participate in a craft developed over decades. Similarly, professionals in corporate, financial, accounting, and other cognitively demanding environments may face cumulative strain associated with precision, repetition, responsibility, prolonged concentration, and expectations for consistently high performance.

Dr. Scott-Morrow works with the whole person behind the performance. The goal is not simply to perform better in the next concert, presentation, deadline, or professional challenge, but to develop the psychological and behavioral resilience needed to sustain a demanding professional life while protecting health, relationships, identity, and quality of life.

Experience Across Clinical, Academic & Forensic Settings

Dr. Scott-Morrow’s professional background spans clinical psychology, behavioral medicine, academic medicine, Veterans Affairs, interdisciplinary pain management, research, private practice, and forensic psychology, including expert testimony.

She has contributed to interdisciplinary committees and professional initiatives within organizations including the University of Minnesota and the St. Cloud VA Medical Center. Her combined training in psychology, behavioral medicine, research, and law gives her a sophisticated perspective on complicated clinical presentations and the larger systems in which people live and work.

Speaker, Researcher & Educator

Dr. Scott-Morrow is also an experienced educator, author, and invited professional speaker. She has served as an expert panelist and presenter at professional conferences including the Facial Pain Association Annual Conference, the American Association of Endodontists Annual Conference, and the Annual Hawaiian Dental Forum.

Her scholarly work has ranged from personality and predictors of medical school performance to psychoneuroimmunology and the complex relationships among psychological, behavioral, and physiological processes. That intellectual breadth continues to inform her clinical work today.

What to Expect in Therapy

Therapy with Dr. Scott-Morrow is particularly well suited to people who want a clinician capable of understanding complexity without reducing their experience to a single symptom or diagnosis.

Clients may initially seek therapy because of pain, illness, identity, family relationships, occupational stress, changes associated with aging, or challenges maintaining a demanding career. Frequently, several of these concerns overlap. Dr. Scott-Morrow helps clients understand those intersections and develop ways of living and working that are healthier, more resilient, and sustainable over time.

She brings the perspective of a psychologist who has spent more than three decades working across health, medicine, research, performance, and complex professional environments. For individuals accustomed to functioning at a very high level, therapy offers a place to think carefully not only about what is wrong, but about how to remain well while continuing to do work that matters deeply to them.

Building a Sustainable Life Around What You Do Best

A successful career or lifelong craft should not require sacrificing physical health, emotional well-being, relationships, or a sense of self. Whether you are navigating chronic pain, serious illness, LGBTQ+ identity or family relationships, the demands of a performing arts career, or the pressures of an exacting corporate or professional role, Dr. Scott-Morrow helps clients develop the resilience needed to adapt, remain engaged, and continue moving forward.

She is available for virtual therapy for clients receiving services in Minnesota, as well as nationally in states participating in PsyPACT.

 

Dr. Scott-Morrow is in-network with Aetna.  She is currently accepting new clients. Feel free to explore our services or  Book a session.