Lee Watters, MS, LMHC
Tampa and St. Petersburg therapist for executives, couples, and life transitions
Helping executives, entrepreneurs, and creatives navigate career transitions, burnout, and the personal weight of high-stakes professional life
Helping individuals and couples move through mid-life and later-life transitions, retirement, illness, and the recalibration each new chapter demands
About Lee
Lee Watters is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and National Certified Counselor at It Begins Within, with thirty-five years of corporate and creative industry experience preceding his work as a therapist. He helps individuals and couples navigate the moments where work, identity, relationships, and life-stage change collide. His approach is direct, collaborative, and strength-based, grounded in the conviction that you are not your problems and that you already carry many of the resources you need to move forward. With training in Solution-Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness-Based practice, and Narrative Therapy, Lee helps clients identify what is already working, build on it, and bring practical tools to the rest. He creates a candid, respectful space where executives, creatives, couples, and adults in transition can think honestly about where they are and what comes next.
Credentials & Education
Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), Florida | License #MH17750
National Certified Counselor (NCC), National Board for Certified Counselors
Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of North Florida, 2015
Training in Solution-Focused Therapy
Integration of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness-Based practice, and Narrative Therapy
Thirty-five years of executive and creative industry experience preceding his clinical career
Who Lauren Supports
Lee works with:
Executives and entrepreneurs navigating career transitions, decision fatigue, leadership stress, and the personal cost of having identity tied to professional performance
Creative professionals working through the psychological demands of creative life, including artistic blocks, the volatility of creative careers, and the visibility that comes with public-facing work
Couples in later-life, addressing the changes that surface in long partnerships, including retirement together, empty-nest transitions, evolving intimacy, and renegotiating roles
Adults navigating retirement and post-career identity, processing the loss of professional structure while building meaning and engagement into the next phase of life
Individuals adjusting to illness, chronic health challenges, or major medical events, working through grief, identity shifts, and the effect on close relationships
Couples and individuals working through divorce, remarriage, blended families, and the change that comes with each new season
Lee’s Approach to Therapy
Lee integrates research-based therapeutic models with a Solution-Focused foundation and a strength-based philosophy. His sessions are direct, collaborative, and designed to identify what is working, what is not, and what to do next.
He focuses on:
Helping executives and entrepreneurs translate the patterns that built their careers into the patterns that protect their wellbeing, addressing burnout, identity tied to performance, and the cost of always being the person others rely on
Supporting couples in long-term partnerships through mid-life and later-life change, including the shifts that come with retirement, illness, evolving intimacy, and renegotiated roles after years of partnership
Guiding adults through career transitions and post-career identity, translating professional skill and meaning into the next phase of life
Working with individuals navigating illness, chronic health challenges, or major medical events, supporting the emotional adjustment, grief, and relational changes that accompany serious health change
Applying Solution-Focused Therapy as the primary framework, identifying what is already working and using those strengths to build the change a client actually wants
Integrating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness-Based practice, and Narrative Therapy as needed, drawing the right tool for the moment rather than forcing a single approach
What Lee Helps Clients With
Lee supports Tampa and St. Petersburg individuals and couples experiencing:
Career transitions and post-career identity
Executive burnout and high-functioning stress
Mid-life and later-life recalibration
Retirement and the loss of professional structure
Adjustment to illness and major medical events
Couples conflict and changing relationship dynamics in long-term partnerships
Divorce, remarriage, and blended family transitions
Self-esteem, personal direction, and major life decisions
Lee’s Background & Training
Lee brings a rare combination of clinical training and lived professional experience. Before becoming a therapist, he spent more than thirty years working across corporate America, journalism, real estate, and Hollywood, including time as a screenwriter and across the entrepreneurial work of building ventures from the ground up.
His professional experience includes:
More than thirty years of executive and creative industry experience preceding his counseling career, including work in corporate America, journalism, screenwriting, and entrepreneurship
Nearly a decade of clinical practice as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Florida, working with clients across a wide range of presenting concerns and life stages
His advanced training and expertise include:
Solution-Focused Therapy as the primary clinical framework
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for thought pattern restructuring and behavior change
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness
Mindfulness-Based therapeutic interventions for present-moment awareness and stress reduction
Narrative Therapy for identity work, life-stage transitions, and meaning-making
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) certification as a National Certified Counselor (NCC)
Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of North Florida
A Message From Lee
"You are not your problems. You are a thoughtful person navigating something unwanted, and you already carry many of the resources you need to get to where you want to go. My role is to help you find those resources, build on what is already working, and bring practical tools to the rest. The good life is built one decision at a time."
Ready to work with Lee?
We invite you to schedule a FREE CONSULTATION with us to begin your healing journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is therapy with Lee different for executives and entrepreneurs?
Executives and entrepreneurs often arrive in therapy with a particular pattern. They are highly capable, they have built careers on solving problems, and they are not used to being the one asking for help. Lee's thirty-plus years across corporate America and the entertainment industry means you do not have to spend the first three sessions explaining your world to him. He has lived the late nights of building a business, the pressure of pitching to people who do not respond, and the cost of being the person everyone else depends on. That shared frame of reference shortens the runway to real work and makes it easier to have honest conversations about burnout, identity tied to performance, decision fatigue, and what it actually takes to build a life that holds up alongside a demanding career.
Can therapy help with the transition into retirement?
Yes, and retirement is one of the most underestimated transitions a person can face. The loss of professional structure, daily purpose, social identity, and the rhythm of work creates a gap that financial planning alone does not fill. Therapy with Lee helps you process the emotional weight of stepping away from a career, clarify what you want the next chapter to look like, and translate the meaning and skill you built into something equally engaging. For couples, the recalibration can be significant, because two people who built lives around demanding careers are suddenly home together with more time and fewer external structures. Lee helps individuals and couples work through that adjustment with practical tools and honest conversation.
What is Solution-Focused Therapy, and how does Lee use it?
Solution-Focused Therapy starts from the assumption that you already have many of the resources you need and that the goal of therapy is to identify what is working, build on it, and figure out the next concrete step toward what you actually want. Lee uses this approach as the foundation of most of his work because it respects the client as the expert on their own life and because it produces measurable change relatively quickly. Rather than spending months mapping every contributing factor to a problem, Solution-Focused work asks what you want, what already moves you in that direction, and what tools will accelerate the rest. Lee integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness-Based practice, and Narrative Therapy alongside Solution-Focused work, drawing the right tool for each situation rather than forcing a single approach.
Does Lee work with couples in long-term marriages?
Yes, and long-term couples are a particular focus of Lee's work. Long marriages face transitions that earlier relationships do not, including the shift into retirement together, the change in intimacy over decades, the adjustment to chronic illness, the redistribution of roles after careers end, and the renegotiation of who each partner is becoming. Lee works with couples who have been together for many years and who want to make the next chapter of their relationship as engaged as the early ones were. He uses Solution-Focused work to identify what has held the marriage together through years of change and then applies those same strengths to whatever the couple is facing now.
How does Lee approach therapy for clients adjusting to serious illness?
Serious illness changes more than the body. It changes identity, daily life, relationships, professional possibilities, and the future a person had imagined for themselves. Lee helps clients work through the grief of that change, build practical coping skills for the demands of treatment or chronic management, and renegotiate roles within marriage and family. He also works with the well partner or family members who are navigating their own version of the same upheaval. The work is not about minimizing what is hard. It is about building the skills and clarity to live well alongside it.
Does Lee offer virtual therapy across Florida?
Yes. Lee provides in-person therapy at the It Begins Within Healing Center Tampa and St. Petersburg offices and offers virtual sessions to clients located anywhere in the State of Florida. Virtual therapy is delivered through a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform and is clinically equivalent to in-person care for the majority of presenting concerns Lee treats. This format is particularly valuable for executives and entrepreneurs with demanding schedules, couples coordinating travel and work commitments, and clients in parts of Florida where specialized therapists are limited. All you need to begin is a private space and a stable internet connection.