I decided to go into the field of counseling 16 years ago because I have a keen curiosity for people, what makes them tick, how to engage them, and how to find ways to make them self-fulfilled and happy. I care about helping people find the positive change they need to bring themselves to a greater awareness and the life fulfillment they seek and deserve. As my experience in the field approaches two decades, I work collaboratively with clients, helping them to explore emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and to face life’s challenges in ways that bring them greater self-acceptance, clarity, and deserved happiness.

Drawing from vast life experience and my education in community mental health, I counsel with individuals and couples to improve feelings of anxiety, depression or loss, communication, relationships with food, job or career circumstances, and conflicts that involve multicultural differences. I have a keen interest in helping clients work through significant life transitions. Examples of this often include relationship struggles, losing a loved one, career shifts, the move to a new city, aging into a new decade, changing a destructive habit, or simply finding purpose where there seemingly is none.

My approach draws primarily from three theoretical areas: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – solving current problems and modifying unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns; Narrative Therapy – identifying our values and the skills, providing knowledge of our ability to live these values so we can effectively confront current and future problems; and Existential Therapy – exploring difficulties from a philosophical perspective, focusing on the human condition as a whole, highlighting our capacities and abilities, taking responsibility for our successes, and finding our eventual purpose.

I grew up with American parents in South East Asia, received my undergraduate education while playing varsity tennis at Duke University, and worked in Corporate America for a decade, all prior to obtaining my MA in Community/Mental Health Counseling, my true passion, from Marymount University.