Areas of Specialty
Reframing Thoughts
We are naturally programmed to have a negative bias, meaning we are likely to pay more attention to the negative aspects of our lives. Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANT) are a result of constant focus on these negative aspects and believing the negative thoughts you have about yourself.
Taking a Cognitive Behavioral approach helps to manage these ANTs. Using CBT, I can help you learn to reframe your negative thoughts to create a shift in how you feel and react to unpleasant thoughts and experiences.
Post Traumatic Growth
Trauma is anything you define as an event that has changed your ability to trust others and yourself. As a result of a traumatic event, the way you view yourself and the world around you alters. As a neuropsychology academic, I help you understand the impact traumatic events have on your brain and behavior.
There is more to trauma recovery than processing your feelings. As an adjunct to traditional talk therapy, I also offer a research backed psychosensory modality as an alternative.
Healthier Coping Skills
Very few people have been taught how to handle the “hard stuff.” Most of our coping strategies were modeled to us by others or were adapted as a means of making the big feelings go away. As a result, some coping strategies learned may be contributing to some of the problems in your life.
Using Dialectical Behavioral Therapy principles, I teach you tools to increase your tolerance for distress, emotional regulation, and help you to improve your interpersonal skills.
Improving Expression and Communication
Feeling unable to express yourself in an effective manner can impact your confidence with your interpersonal skills. This type of experience can hinder your self-esteem, confidence, and take away your ability to assert boundaries. It may also impact your delivery and ways you speak to others.
Drawing from elements of Positive Psychology and the use of Nonviolent Communication, I introduce more active approaches to expression and communication. In session, I provide support in learning how to adequately communicate your needs in compassionate, confident, and empowered ways that work to enhance your relationships.
Therapy for Asians and
Asian-Americans
Mental health is not a commonly discussed topic within Asian households, thus creating a unique set of challenges amongst the Asian/Asian-American community.
Acculturation, guilt, shame, filial piety (taking care of one’s own parents), tension amongst more traditionalist family members, and identity crisis are common themes amongst the Asian/Asian-American communities. Often reporting experiences of feeling lost, confused, disconnected, depressed, not belonging, and resentment are part of the experience.
In sessions, we explore the internal and external conflicts, meaning of identity, and the role culture plays into your life. The objective is learning to embrace the duality of Eastern and Western cultures.