Dr Leaf is contradicted by her own qualifications

In her books, on TV, at churches, and in promotional material, Dr Leaf describes herself as a 'cognitive neuroscientist'.  

However, Dr Leaf does not have formal qualifications in neuroscience, has not worked at a university as a neuroscientist, has not worked in any neuroscience research labs, nor has she published any papers in neuroscience journals.

Actually, Dr Leaf is trained as a communication pathologist.  A communication pathologist is an allied health professional which seems to be unique to South Africa where Dr Leaf trained.  It's a synthesis of audiology and speech pathology.  It qualified her to work as a therapist, which Dr Leaf did for children with traumatic brain injuries.  Dr Leaf also researched a narrow band of educational psychology as part of her PhD, and she also worked in a number of schools and for educational boards in South Africa.  Dr Leaf hasn't performed any university based research since her PhD was published in 1997.

In contrast, true cognitive neuroscientists actively carry out research into the biological basis of thoughts and behaviours - either mapping behaviours to certain brain regions using electrical currents from the brain, or with functional brain imaging like fMRI, or stimulating or suppressing the activity of a region of the brain and seeing how a person responds.

Simply having some training in neuroanatomy and psychology doesn't make you a cognitive neuroscientist.  Completing a PhD that involved a model for learning doesn't make you a cognitive neuroscientist.  Reading a lot of books on neuroscience doesn't make you a neuroscientist either, just like reading the Bible doesn't automatically make you a Pastor.

So no matter how much Dr Leaf may try to convince us that she's an expert cognitive neuroscientist, truth be told, she is not.

Of more concern is that Dr Leaf is also trying to position herself as an expert in the fields of mental health and nutrition.  But if she can't get her facts right in an area in which she's had some training, then it's unlikely Dr Leaf's teaching will be reliable in areas that she's had no formal training or experience whatsoever.

I might add, Dr Leaf's insistence that she's a cognitive neuroscientist and an expert on mental health and nutrition is also quite insulting for real psychologists, neuroscientists and nutritionists whose opinions are ignored in favour of a self-titled expert whose only 'authority' comes by popular demand, not training or experience.