Su Su Maung (she/her)

In life, there is ebbs and flow, and movement from one phase to another. It is not always easy, and there are growing pains. Some changes are not ones that we choose to make. Some are ones we can't let go of. Some we want to leave behind, yet they hold on to us longer than we want. With my life transitions as an immigrant, and my experience working with diverse ages, I understand the challenge and will be there to scaffold each step so you can feel supported through the moving forward.

We live in ourselves all our lives and so we are our own best friend. If you cannot feel good about yourself, and you do not have a good sense of who you are, it is difficult to find the motivation and confidence in many aspects of your life. My experience with marginalized communities, and my experience as a mentor and teacher to students, inform how I can recognize the unique characteristics and strengths in others, and in facilitating the development of these aspects.

In life, there is ebbs and flow, and movement from one phase to another. It is not always easy, and there are growing pains. Some changes are not ones that we choose to make. Some are ones we can't let go of. Some are stages we want to leave behind, yet they hold on to us longer than we want. With my own life transitions as an immigrant, and my experiences with young adults, I understand the challenge and will be there to scaffold each step so you can feel supported through the moving forward.

As the other half of the human population tasked with a myriad of important roles, women are often not recognized sufficiently for their contributions and their capabilities. Moreover, due to these roles, there are many difficult choices women are faced with that can add stress to our lives. As a woman myself, and through studying feminist theories and counseling many women clients, I am familiar with the nuances of women's issues. I am here to be a fellow sister in your empowerment.

I have worked in a Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory with Dr. David Matsumoto, a leading psychologist who studies culture, during my undergraduate studies. I have also worked in organizations serving Asians, managed a social work program in Singapore, co-founded a non-profit to assist refugees and asylees, participated in development of mental health care in a developing nation, and provided psychotherapy for Asian-American clients needing a culturally competent therapist.

My approach to psychotherapy has aligned with relational-cultural theory even before I studied about it. It is a model with roots in feminist theory and in recognition of the ways our culture and society, with their influences and constraints from power differentials, can shape who we are and how we can navigate our worlds. Using my creative side, I also approach therapeutic interventions beyond the conventional through inclusion of community models that are native to the people I work with.

We are driven by our beliefs, needs and intrinsic motivations to act, think, and feel the way we do to our environmental and relational stressors. Often times, the way we think and feel are not necessarily biological or innate deficits but rather shaped by our past early experiences that we did not have control over. This is how I approach from the psychodynamic perspectives that honor the learning that was done. I work with you to unlearn these and to support a corrective healing experience.