Services

For the young person: I am not in your position, and I am not experiencing the world or family you are currently living in. I can’t claim that “I get it”, at least not fully. Nor can I promise to not ask you some cringe questions about slang or “how’s school going”. But I do know some things about what it can be like to be a young person trying to navigate changes. Whether the changes are in your self-image, worries about balancing academics and social expectations, feeling unsure if you are doing “enough” or “the right thing” for many situations, or maybe even feeling like you’re waiting for your life to actually begin.

This is a difficult stage in your life. You're being asked to make big decisions that could impact your future, yet you might not even have a say in your curfew. You might be looking at your parents and wondering who changed, or what happened this past few years that led you to this point where things feel disconnected. Perhaps you’re wondering what the difference is between you and a well-trained robot who checks all the college application boxes.

I don’t have all the answers, but I want to collaborate with you to see what your own answers will be. Here in therapy, I want to provide a space where we are operating as equals to explore issues that are important to you. You’re the expert of your own life. As a therapist and fellow human being, I might have some insights to help guide you toward resolving those issues in a way that feels good to you.

For the parent of a young person: Under construction

For the adult child: Perhaps you have wondered what got you to this place with your family for some time now. Maybe it’s the strange feeling in your throat when you think about visiting home. Maybe it’s uncertainty about how you can care for your parents as they age, or if you even want to play a role. It might even be feelings, thoughts, and memories that you just can’t quite place nor speak of. Family of origin issues are complicated.

If you’re willing, I’d like to support you in unpacking your family story, and what happened to you. In this process, we can practice together how to verbalize and acknowledge your thoughts and emotions, regulate your emotional reactions to stressful memories or ongoing conflicts, and find ways to maintain your own mental and emotional well-being by creating healthy boundaries and increasing coping skills. It takes space, consideration, and time, to genuinely be able to move forward with full understanding of what relationship will serve you best.

LGBTQIA2S+

Queer identity is a complicated and nuanced topic in therapy and in life. Whether you’re an individual looking to explore your queer identity, trying to configure a way to exist safely as yourself in this political climate, or entering milestones in your journey, I hope to provide a space that feels safe, non-judgmental, and respectful to your as a human being before all else. As a therapist, I have supported clients in topics related to transitioning, romantic relationships, family and peers stressors etc. However, I do not view myself as an expert of your unique experiences. I have learned from my work in the past that everyone has their own story, and my role is to find an approach that works for the issue my client is bringing in, with authenticity and understanding at the core of our work.

Cross-Cultural Stress

Asian American culture is complicated. Life in the ‘hyphen’ brings subtle but strong signals that can make you feel as if something is just a little ‘off’. Sometimes it may be not knowing how to join a conversations with your coworkers, explaining why you have a curfew as a legal adult, or having to explain why you can’t just cut your parents off to your friends or partner. It can also look like not knowing what to say to that call asking when you’re going to ‘settle down’ and provide grand kids or when you’re going to visit home. Those fleeting moments of discomfort, distress, and perhaps even sadness are vulnerable experiences that deserve to be explored. These tiny moments might add up to a puzzle that just doesn’t fit quite right. In therapy, we can tap into those moments together with a compassionate and gentle lens. We can explore how you can navigate these moments with confidence, comfort, and clarity toward yourself.

Phase of Life Transitions

There are many junctures in life where changes can occur that bring significant distress. Whether it’s changes in employment, changing schools, or ending a significant personal relationship. These changes can hold a significant impact on how you view yourself and those around you. Perhaps even in an overwhelming, unstable, or flat out unsafe manner.

Here in therapy, we can focus on how to find some “sense” in what is happening and collaborate together to explore the emotions and memories that these changes bring up, while reflecting upon the strengths and resilience you already possess to increase your sense of confidence toward the future. Our work together can provide a space to grieve what has been lost while also building practical skills to navigate what is to come.

Support for Caregivers：Caring for a loved one who is experiencing major illness(i.e. dementia, Alzheimer's, or cancer etc.) is an experience that is difficult to put into words or comprehend. It’s a process of daily loss. It’s witnessing someone becoming a fraction of themselves as the disease takes over day by day. It’s trying to stay hopeful despite all the reasons to feel everything but that. It might look like experiencing a range of emotions from helplessness and anger, to depression and numbness.

In our sessions, I hope to provide a space where we can explore not only practical, present-focused strategies to help you navigate these challenges but also those difficult, and perhaps displaced emotions. We can explore practical items such as available community resources, how to effectively communicate with healthcare providers, or maintain emotional regulation and clarity in important medical decision making. And when you’re ready, I want to provide a completely safe space where you can truly let go of all the "strength" you held on to and genuinely look at your own emotions and this chapter of your story.

Grief：It’s hard to capture grief. It’s not just a feeling of sadness, or an experience, or a story to be told in the future. It can look like that one recurring dream, tears that seem to come out of nowhere as you go about your everyday life, and just inexplicably wanting to talk to that person on a completely pleasant and wonderful sunny afternoon. It can also be wishing and praying that you can have one more conversation with that person, one more meal, or even another lifetime more. I know you’ve told the story many times, but I hope that in therapy, we can take our time to slow down, and actually reconcile our emotions with that story. In this space, I hope to be able to honor your story and experience with goals to retell the thoughts, emotions, and memories in a way that makes the whole thing endurable.

Meeting Death：I’ve always been taught that death is a taboo. You don’t talk about dying, you don’t talk about death, and you do everything you can to maintain an image of a happy, fulfilled, ending. But over the course of my career, I have learned that death is an inevitable stage of life, and can be an opportunity to reflect and make peace with your journey. I hope to have authentic and vulnerable conversations with you about death. Whether it’s something you had long anticipated or something you’d rather avoid thinking about. I hope we can re-examine and redefine what death means to you through the course of therapy, reflect on your life thus far, and explore together how you can cope with the emotional, thoughts, and physical challenges you are experiencing as a side effect of meeting death.