Services
About My Clients
I work with adults who have spent their lives being capable, meeting expectations, and showing up for other people, and somewhere along the way lost touch with themselves. You may struggle with people-pleasing and boundaries, or feel unsure what you actually want. The people I see include adult children of immigrants and Asian Americans, adults diagnosed with ADHD or autism later in life, LGBTQIA+ clients thinking about belonging and family, and couples, including mixed neurotype couples.
My Background and Approach
I offer psychodynamic therapy, which is reflective, exploratory, and culturally informed. We usually start with whatever is most pressing, and from there the work tends to go further back, into how your emotional life and your relationships took the shape they did. Along the way you may see patterns you hadn't noticed: how much energy goes into meeting expectations, managing how you're perceived, or keeping up an appearance of competence, and how rarely there's been space to ask what you actually want. My style is collaborative, patient, and non-judgmental. With couples, we look at what each of you brings from your own history, and at what happens between the two of you in the room. I hold an MSW from Columbia University with clinical training in individual and couples therapy, focused on psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches. Before this I spent eight years in tech startups in San Francisco, including senior leadership roles. The work is open-ended and usually weekly.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
A late ADHD or autism diagnosis can bring up more than one feeling at once. You may feel relief at finally having an explanation, and grief for the younger you who kept trying harder and assumed the problem was effort. There may be some anger in there too. Much of what we look at is the masking skills you've developed, which parts of it you want to keep, and which may have cost more than you realized. I grew up as the eldest daughter in a Chinese immigrant family. It's where I first saw how the roles you take on early keep shaping you long into adulthood, and how many expectations get passed down without anyone ever saying them out loud. Those are usually part of what we look at together. I also work with LGBTQIA+ clients thinking about belonging, family expectations, and identity. I work best with people who are thoughtful and curious about their inner lives, and who sense that long-standing patterns are shaping their relationships, choices, and sense of self.