About

How do you treat something that you, yourself might not always have the words for? I come across this question every day in my work as an informed listener, helping teens and adults in my practice. Perhaps things have simply felt off for some time. You or your child generally feel bad or nothing at all.

Maybe you reached the top of the mountain only to ask, now what? An adamant voice says there is no life worth leading unless you are exceptional.  Or perhaps, you manage things on the surface seamlessly only to feel overwhelmed behind closed doors. 

It would make so much sense.  Our environment has demanded more in recent times—be more, do more, have more—all at once.  It is not by chance we exist in the age of superheroes and social media.  There are bigger shoes for us, and our children to grow into yet not enough room to play or tend to the inner person.

Approach

My approach is developmental and attachment-based. I offer intensive, relational psychotherapy as a form of a reset. This means the relationships we form, provide a layered map of how we give meaning to events in our lives. Disruption and impingement in this process can lead to a variety of challenges, both in how we connect to ourselves and others. Our learned ways of surviving can become rote without our conscious awareness—most of us are even rewarded for them. Perhaps they no longer serve us.  My job is to uncover these patterns and gently make room for experiences that bring more inner life. Gradually, this expands into fuller work, school, and relationships.  This can take place in, at least once a week, individual therapy or a group format in real-time.

Background

I have over 11 years of extensive experience in trauma from UCSF, Kaiser, and UCSD to, more importantly, culturally-attuned psychoanalytic treatment at RAMS, a community agency in San Francisco where I was previously a staff psychologist for several years, and clinical supervisor. I also immigrated from Southeast Asia at a young age.  My story offers me a unique sensibility to make contact with adolescents and adults when their world is in upheaval, no matter how developmentally universal. It also informs my flexible clinical style.  I am honest yet reassuring with kindness and a sense of humor. I invite folks from various spectrums and backgrounds who do not feel reflected, nor understood, in our mainstream collective to reach out and set up an initial meeting.