Identity + Integration

Counseling services that aim to decolonize western therapy, acknowledge the impact of systemic oppression, and slowly heal complex trauma affecting our mind, body, heart and spirit

An important note.

Normalize asking where your therapist stands politically. Politics ripple down; our position holds power and will impact your therapy, especially if you hold minoritized identities.

I stand in solidarity with Palestinians and all global communities that are amid genocide and being heavily oppressed. The United States has caused and continues to cause an overwhelming amount of destruction and global harm.

About & Approach

—
I am a queer, neurodivergent, ex-evangelical, able-bodied, cis, 4th generation Japanese American.

I believe healing comes slowly and intentionally, quickening as we carve spaces of vulnerability and connection with ourselves and others, while finding ways to regulate our nervous system, allowing our body to experience safety and trust again.

I love working collaboratively and hold a relational-cultural theoretical lens, echoing that the harm from systemic oppression disconnects us from all parts of ourselves and real connection is the way back. I am passionate about advocacy work, especially with people impacted by the prison and criminal legal system, largely because my family was unjustly incarcerated for being Japanese during World War II.

In the every day, you can find me happily introverting in my own home while balancing movement outside, having big feels/sensings inside but looking kinda stoic outside, and getting lost exploring concepts and ideas… while trying not to over-caffeinate or over-sugar myself with matcha lattes and the Trader Joe’s chocolate milk.

—
Professional Counselor Associate, R7874
with training in Marriage and Family Therapy
Supervised by Tony Lai, LPC, RPT-S

The Process

1

20-Min Free Consult

A brief space to connect and chat about reasons for counseling at this time. We’ll also figure out if we fit well and want to move forward together.

2

Initial Assessment

A one-time initial session where we’ll chat more in-depth about background and history, providing more context to inform treatment goals.

3

Individual Sessions

Currently, sessions are offered every other week, unless a crisis arises. Our space will explore your story and aim to journey in a way that feels emotionally and mentally safe and connected.

Identity & Integration

  • One of the most terrifying & isolating aspects of feeling like you don't belong is the ineffableness. Asian Americans, even in all our diversity, often lack the words to describe how it hurts, why we feel this way, the ways our loneliness manifests, and — most importantly — how we can change things.

    — Soo Jin Lee & Linda Yoon, Where I Belong

  • Trauma is a wordless story our body tells itself about what is safe and what is a threat.

    — Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands

  • Because this work of inner healing, relational reconciliation, and identity integration has the power to transform generations after us, I cannot even begin to imagine what is possible if we all committed to healing and prioritizing our mental health as a community.

    — Jenny Wang, Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans

  • We tend to think of healing as something binary—either we're broken or we're healed. But that's not how healing operates, and it's almost never how human growth works. More often, healing and growth take place on a continuum, with innumerable points between utter brokenness and total health.

    — Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands