Individual Therapy

Therapeutic Approaches

  • Parts work is a therapeutic approach that leans into one’s non-judgmental curiosity to explore internal conflicts between different parts of ourselves. Internal conflicts often happen when trauma or hardships force us to suppress parts of ourselves for survival, especially parts that are wounded and calling out for help. Although avoiding those parts in pain can provide temporary relief, it usually leads to even greater emotional distress when suppressed parts demand attention and care.

    I use internal family systems (IFS) as an approach to parts work. I am also actively working towards certification in Trauma Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), a therapeutic modality developed to help individuals who feel victim to trauma-related symptoms, dissociation and identities, intense emotional dysregulation, compulsive/addictive tendencies, and difficulties with relationships.

    In therapy, we work on

    • Discussing ways to connect with our inner child and other parts that need emotional nourishment, sense of safety, and acceptance.

    • Processing our internal conflicts to help all parts release their traumas and to learn healthier ways of functioning, relating, and living with one another.

    • Strengthening our sense of identity by becoming the loving parent to our own self. This self-love can transform to self-empowerment.

  • Dialectical behavioral therapy and acceptance commitment therapy are two therapy modalities that help clients learn two core skills in life: to simultaneously accept life’s circumstances gracefully while also working towards building a life worth living according to one’s own values. The whole idea of dialectics is all about balancing opposites in life. While that may feel unnatural or counterintuitive, it is really an art when we embrace the gray and get comfortable with the unknown.

    Learning skills from DBT and ACT can not only help expand our ability to cope with hardships, but also prompt us to decide what is most important in our lives. If we can take steps to accept the fact that pain is simply part of life, we can reduce the suffering caused by pushing away pain, and instead put that energy into all the things in life that we truly care about: the beautiful, chaotic, joyous, purposeful parts of life that make you who you are!

    In therapy, we work on:

    • Strengthening mindfulness skills because paying attention to the present is essential for learning how to cope with pain. If we don’t know what we’re feeling, we don’t know what to cope with!

    • Increasing your tolerance to distress, which is another way of saying that there are healthier and safer ways to ride the waves of pain, especially if our emotions and impulses become extremely overwhelming.

    • Regulating our emotions, not just with coping skills to soothe our pain, but also with prevention strategies that address the root cause of those painful moments. We learn to set up our lives so that our pain decreases over time.

    • Becoming more effective in our relationships through communication skills, relationship skills, boundary setting, and more. We apply all the other skills in the context of relationships, where emotions are most activated!

  • Somatics and mindfulness are approaches that have everything to do with the mind-body-spirit connection. Understanding the very nature of our humanity helps clue us in to data, knowledge, and insights we already hold about ourselves, but may not have yet discovered. So much of what we’ve been taught about knowledge focuses on our intellect, or in other words, our cognitive abilities to understand. Somatics and mindfulness help us tap into different ways to learn about ourselves, our histories, our wants, needs, fears, and desires. Through our bodies, emotions, and inner voice, we can learn more about our authentic self.

    Trauma memories can often be held in the body, so somatic experiencing is a unique way of releasing traumatic stress and processing those experiences. This approach is also incredibly gentle and compassionate, and thereby healing and corrective of our trauma responses!

    In therapy, we work on:

    • Learning and practicing mindfulness techniques, like guided meditations, deep breathing, and other skills that engage our bodies in gentle, intentional movement. We learn what does and does not work for you!

    • Creating a map of your emotions and where they lie in your body. Gathering this data helps us become more aware of what our bodies are letting us know in a moment of need. Listening and tending to those needs helps us relearn what true safety is.

  • If you’re like me, you may often ponder on existential questions and dread, like wondering about the meaning of life (or rather the meaninglessness of it!), the purpose of pain, where we go after we die, how morality and the concept of evil formed, and perhaps even how terrible some people can be…If that’s the case, you are more than welcome to bring these questions into our space.

    Existential therapy helps us recognize that all the questions we have about the unknown can be a vehicle to finding our own meaning. We most likely will not find “the” answers, but we might be surprised by the gift of asking questions with a curious perspective. Facing our fears and all that is uncertain, especially when not alone, helps us access our sense of empowerment, live in less anxiety, and distinguish what is and is not within our control.

    In therapy, we work on:

    • Facing our anxiety about the unknowns in life. Articulating and processing our thoughts and feelings is a simple yet effective strategy for challenging our phobic responses to things that scare us, including our own thoughts and feelings. When you can name it, you can tame it!

    • Exploring and cultivating your own meaning in life and how you would like to develop that. We focus on your values, priorities, and responsibilities to take charge of your life within the bounds of your own sphere of control.

    • Embracing the fact that we are tiny humans in this big world, which doesn’t have to be depressing. This can actually propel us to stop taking ourselves so seriously, giving us permission to free ourselves from the fear of failure!

    • Psychoeducation on trauma, mental health, and emotions

    • Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy

    • Psychodynamic theory

    • Gestalt method

    • Narrative therapy

    • Schema/attachment therapy

    • Integration of spirituality, if requested

Therapy for Trauma and Attachment Wounds

Healing from trauma often requires a specialized approach in therapy, which means talk therapy is sometimes not enough. Perhaps you’ve experienced it yourself, where you’ve shared your story over and over again, but find little relief each time you hope to let go of the pain. You might have practiced telling yourself in the mirror that you are loved and are enough, yet it feels like a lie because you still can’t shake off the unrelenting critical voice that sounds a lot like your dad. Even if it’s been years, it still feels like any reminder of the traumas transports you back into time and leaves an unsettling feeling in your stomach for the rest of the day.

If that feels familiar to you, specialized trauma therapy may be an ideal next step in your recovery. Though there are many forms of trauma therapy, the stages of treatment are generally separated into three phases. Though healing is never linear!

The first phase is related to building safety and stabilizing any stress responses you have to trauma triggers. We will work towards providing as many tools as possible to help you cope with distress in the here and now, making sure that you feel confident in your ability to access your resources in a time of need.

The second phase is related to processing the traumas that happened. This means giving ourselves the much-needed time and space to grieve what happened to us, though we will do this without re-traumatization. This phase can often be painful as we unlock emotions and internal experiences we didn’t get to process in the past, simply because we were just trying to survive. However, your coping skills come in handy and often help clients realize how resilient they truly are. More than that, the healing is cathartic and freeing!

The third phase is related to “reconnecting and re-integrating”. This is a fancy phrase that describes the process of discovering one’s identity beyond trauma, learning to make choices that break cycles of trauma, and making connections to healthy and loving people that help us learn how to trust, feel safe, and experience love again.

Therapy for Dissociative Experiences and Identities

Dissociation is a type of stress response that happens when someone feels unsafe but is unable to escape the situation. Dissociation exists on a continuum, which means everyone has experienced it, like being on auto-pilot when you brush your teeth or suddenly realizing you drove the wrong way after daydreaming in the car! But as dissociation increases in intensity, it can manifest as a feeling like your surroundings are unreal or you feel outside of your body. On the most extreme end, some of us live as systems, where our personality functions as multiple parts and can be separated by amnesia. Common diagnoses that dissociation is often associated with are dissociative identity disorder/other specified dissociative disorders (DID/OSDD), complex PTSD, and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

If you struggle with any of these symptoms, experiences, and diagnoses, we can work on practicing grounding techniques that help you reconnect to the present moment and identify triggers that cause dissociative responses.

If you identify as a plural system or suspect you may have multiple internal parts, we can explore how your inner world works and what each part needs. We will learn to listen with compassion, foster teamwork and effective communication between parts, and build loving relationships within the system. Healing may look like healthy multiplicity and/or fusion, which can lead to fewer distressing dissociative experiences and greater sense of control in the present moment.

Therapy for BIPOC and Asian Americans

As an Asian American myself with immigrant parents, I am more than familiar with the unique and often painful experiences that come alongside being BIPOC in the US. I have also worked with a diverse range of folks, including but not limited to individuals identifying as AAPI, Hispanic/Latinx, Black and African American, Middle Eastern/Persian, and European/Eastern European. It is important to me that my clients do not feel the need to over-educate me, code switch, or hold back in sharing about culture, identity, and heritage. In fact, we will celebrate all of who you are and every identity you bring into the room!

Common topics that may arise in our work together include:

  • Filial piety, perpetual foreigner, bamboo ceiling

  • The difficult balance between individualistic vs. collectivistic cultural values in our families

  • Experiences of microaggressions, discrimination, and racial trauma

  • Immigrant experiences and associated challenges, third culture kids

  • Imposter syndrome, feeling as though we do not belong anywhere

  • Internalized shame, further impacted by societal expectations of BIPOC

  • Beholding and honoring the beauty of our cultures and backgrounds and the gift of heritage, even as we also recognize cycles of generational trauma

You deserve a therapist who is willing and able to embrace all aspects of your identity, especially as healing trauma is so frequently intertwined with our family of origin. You are welcome to be who you are!

Therapy for mental health and other life challenges

Common conditions and challenges we can work through in therapy:

  • Depression

  • Anxiety

  • OCD

  • Bipolar disorder

  • Suicidal ideation and self-harm

  • Grief/loss

  • Chronic pain

  • Burnout

  • Life transitions, young adult experiences

  • and more!

Therapy can often be nuanced for different types of symptoms and challenges, so we can tailor your treatment based on your current experiences of distress, needs, goals, and hopes for the future. This may include strengthening coping skills, integrating practices of holistic self-care and compassion, increasing cognitive and emotional flexibility, and learning to sit with our emotions.

Ready to connect?

Let’s chat!