LEIGH PFEIL GOODMAN
PRIVATE PRACTICE CONSULTANT + FRACTIONAL CEO
THE SPARKNOTES VERSION
Hi! I’m Leigh. I’m currently based in Richmond, Virginia. I have spent years finetuning my skills in private practice here in Richmond at the executive management level. When I’m not supporting private practice owners, I’m chasing 7-year old twins and one surprisingly fast 5-year old, sipping wine, cooking in my kitchen, and chasing our chickens around our micro-homestead. I'm Buddhist. I love to coerce my husband into decorating for Halloween in August, burn incense like it’s a high paying job, + am currently making my suburban homesteading + apothecary dream a reality! I use swear words like commas. Â
I'm a consultant, business mentor, + fractional CEO.
I teach private practice owners in the integrative + mental healthcare industries how to balance practice management + business ownership with their clinical caseloads + their lives.
THE LONGER VERSION...
ABOUT ME
(aka: why i do this and why it matters)
I didn’t set out to become a consultant.
I set out to survive.
For years, I worked inside a private practice that looked “successful” on paper and was quietly eating me alive in real life. Not enough hours in any given day. Endless responsibility. No margin. No pause. Just the constant hum of this has to keep working because everything depends on it.
And I burned the fuck out.
Not the romantic kind of burnout people write Medium articles about. The kind that bleeds into your parenting. Your marriage. Your nervous system. The kind where you’re technically functioning but emotionally threadbare. The kind where you’re doing meaningful work and still wondering why it feels like you’re drowning.
I was a mom. A wife. A daughter. A leader. A problem-solver.
And I was exhausted in every single role.
That breaking point forced me to confront a hard truth most helpers don’t want to look at:
Good intentions do not make an unsustainable system sustainable.
Loving your patients or clients doesn’t protect you from burnout.
Being ethical doesn’t magically create capacity.
And sacrificing yourself on the altar of “this is just how it’s done” helps exactly no one in the long run.
So I started asking different questions.
Not How do I push harder?
But What is actually viable?
What can this business realistically hold?
What can I realistically hold?
What happens when we design work around human limits instead of pretending we don’t have any?
That’s where everything changed.
I learned how to separate what was possible from what was aspirational fantasy.
How to build systems that respected capacity instead of punishing it.
How to make decisions that didn’t require constant self-abandonment.
How to run a practice that didn’t quietly cannibalize the people inside it.
And here’s the part people don’t always say out loud:
I care deeply about humanizing the provider–patient relationship.
I care about pulling the curtain back on insurance-driven care models that profit from exhaustion and moral distress at the expense of exceptional, patient-centric care
I care about sustainability because I don’t want any more brilliant, compassionate people to disappear from this field because the structure crushed them.
BUT UNDERNEATH ALL OF THAT?
I’m just a wife + mom of three tiny humans who wants to make a living and be present.
I want to show up for my work and my life.
I don’t want to die trying to prove I’m dedicated enough.
I know the longing you feel when you want your work to matter without it costing you everything.
I know what it’s like to love what you do and still resent how much it takes.
I know how heavy it feels to carry responsibility with no margin and no roadmap.
WORK WITH LEIGHTHAT'S WHY I DO THIS.
I help practice owners and leaders build businesses that enlighten without destroying them.
I help you design work that fits inside a real human life.
I help you stop confusing suffering with commitment.
This isn’t about hustling less and caring more.
It’s about telling the truth about capacity, systems, money, boundaries, and energy—and building from there.
You don’t need to be less invested.
You need a structure that doesn’t demand your slow disappearance.
That’s the work
That’s the hill I’ll die on—preferably not from burnout.
WORK WITH LEIGH
