Asian American Therapist in Manhattan
In-person and virtual therapy for Asian American professionals navigating imposter syndrome, self-worth, attachment issues, and the psychological demands of high achievement
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In-person and virtual therapy for Asian American professionals navigating imposter syndrome, self-worth, attachment issues, and the psychological demands of high achievement
Contact MeThis page is dedicated to those who grew up in immigrant households, translating everything for their parents.
To the first-generation college students who carried the weight of two worlds while navigating systems no one prepared them for.
To those now facing their deepest fears and the beliefs that once kept them safe, and choosing to heal.
I'm a second generation Chinese American who grew up in the Bay Area in an immigrant household. I'm now a clinical psychologist based in Manhattan, but for a long time, I was a kid trying to make sense of a home that felt unpredictable and emotionally unsafe.
My parents ran a restaurant, worked long hours, and carried trauma from the Cultural Revolution that they never really processed. Those unprocessed experiences influenced everything: the way they responded to conflict, the anxiety they carried around work and money, the way they showed up as parents. Survival mode was all they knew.
I learned early to stay quiet, manage everyone's emotions, and not cause problems.
My parents loved me. They sacrificed enormously. But emotional attunement wasn't something they could offer because no one had offered it to them.
Like many second-generation Asian American kids, I coped by achieving and pushing down my emotions. I internalized the belief that my needs were a burden. By my mid-twenties, I was struggling with constant anxiety and couldn't understand why external success wasn't making anything better internally.
Therapy changed that. For the first time, I didn't have to manage someone else's emotional state or worry about being too much. Working with a therapist who understood intergenerational trauma and the dynamics of immigrant families helped me see how I got stuck in these patterns. That experience became the foundation for the work I do now.
I know what it's like to appear capable on the outside while carrying a lot internally. I know what it's like to constantly second-guess yourself or feel guilty for prioritizing what you want.
Today, I work with high-achieving adults whose stories often mirror my own. Many are navigating burnout, relationship difficulties, imposter syndrome, or the lasting effects of growing up with critical, unpredictable, or emotionally unavailable parents. My approach is relational, culturally informed, and focused on understanding the deeper patterns that shape how you think, feel, and relate to others. My doctoral research on shame and self-esteem in Chinese-American families deepened my understanding of the complexities of immigrant parenting and the unique pressures that shape both generations.
My goal is to provide the kind of space that helped me heal: a place where you don't have to perform, where your emotions make sense, and where you can understand and transform the patterns that no longer serve you.
Many of my clients are high-achieving professionals who understand their patterns intellectually, but still feel stuck emotionally and fall back into the same safety behaviors that they developed during childhood. Our work focuses on what can only be explored in a consistent, attuned therapeutic relationship.
The practice of therapy is my life calling. It has shaped who I am both personally and professionally, and I bring over a decade of clinical experience and deep personal growth to the work I do.
In December 2024, I visited my paternal grandparents' memorial in Shenzhen with my parents, my brother, and several relatives. I had paid respect to my grandparents' memorial before, but this particular visit felt the most significant.
I remember what stuck with me the most was deeply seeing my immigrant parents for the first time.
What I saw of my parents was their aging.
What I saw of my parents were individuals who grew up during the Cultural Revolution period in China with unprocessed traumas that they still carry with them to this day.
What I saw of my parents were people who did the best they could as parents with the knowledge they had at the time.
What I saw of my parents were the decades of sacrifice, and the toll they had put on their bodies operating a restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area.
What I saw of my parents were people who only took 2-3 days off from work a year, so that they could make money and provide as many opportunities for me and my brother that they themselves never had, like the opportunity to pursue higher education and make it as white collar professionals.
My parents' immigrant story is a story that many who come from immigrant families can resonate with. However, what is often not talked about in these immigrant stories is the emotional cost. The emotional cost of mourning, worrying about those they left behind, unprocessed trauma, intergenerational traumas that immigrant parents can unconsciously pass on to their children, and the intergenerational conflicts that occur between Asian Americans offsprings and their immigrant parents.
As I looked upon the ocean view from my grandparents memorial towards the end of my visit, I was reminded of how many other Chinese and Asian American individuals have stories similar to mine, and how many of them deal with anguish and deep internal conflicts alone.
But you are not alone.
We all have a story to tell. And my hope is that my story will encourage you to tell your story and pursue your biggest hopes and dreams to the fullest.
Often, the most difficult part of succeeding at a high level is managing your own psychology. When you're mentally taxed, insecurities like fear of failure and limiting beliefs are easily triggered. Unlike executive coaching, therapy targets the deeper beliefs and patterns that influence how you process stress, make decisions, and relate to others.
Learn More →Attachment therapy is an area of work I am passionate about. I work with adults who find themselves overthinking in dating, stuck in familiar patterns, or shaped by early emotional dynamics. If this resonates, you can read more about my approach to attachment therapy.
Learn More →As someone who grew up with volatile and unpredictable parents, I know what it's like to constantly "walk on eggshells." Growing up with critical, unpredictable, or emotionally distant parents leaves a lasting imprint. I offer empathic support to help you understand how your childhood experiences shaped who you are today, so you can process emotional neglect, develop healthier boundaries, and restructure old relational patterns that no longer serve you.
Learn More →As someone raised by a parent with high-functioning ASD, I bring lived experience to supporting neurodivergent Asian Americans and those affected by neurodivergent family members. We address executive functioning challenges, sensory sensitivities, and the psychological cost of camouflaging.
Learn More →Trauma work is central to what I do. I work with clients who carry experiences that still affect them, whether from childhood, family dynamics, or difficult life events. My approach draws on psychodynamic and relational methods, and I have particular experience with intergenerational trauma in immigrant families.
Growing up between two cultures shaped who I am, and I bring that understanding to my work. Whether you're navigating family expectations, dating, the weight of being a model minority, or the toll of microaggressions.
If you grew up managing your parents' emotions, walking on eggshells, or learning that your needs came last, you're not alone. I wrote this post about my own experience growing up with emotionally immature parents and the path I took toward healing.
Read: Healing for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents →Often our deepest insecurities, fears, and core beliefs were derived from the first 18 years of our lives.
Think: 365 days x 18 years of relational attitudes, beliefs and assumptions that were modeled to us by our caretakers and other experiences in our upbringing environment.
If you were raised in a household where your emotional needs were often met with disappointment, overtime you will likely develop a generalized expectation (core belief) that "others cannot meet my emotional needs, so what is the point of help seeking, talking about it, or working through issues with someone?"
In therapy, I utilize the therapy relationship to reshape these deeply ingrained relational attitudes. 12 months of treatment would be considered short-term. Many of my clients work with me for multiple years. It is through the aggregate process of therapy contact that enduring change occurs.
As I am making a commitment to you in your healing journey, 1x a week therapy cadence (excluding holidays and in advance notified time off) is the expectation given my therapy orientation. This frequency is necessary in order to reconstruct old relational attitudes stuck in the past, and to promote healthier ways of relating to oneself and others (attachment) and down to the neurological pathway level.
Relapse after cognitive behavior therapy of depression: potential implications for longer courses of treatment. (1992). American Journal of Psychiatry, 149(8), 1046–1052. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.149.8.1046
Ali, S., Rhodes, L., Moreea, O., McMillan, D., Gilbody, S., Leach, C., Lucock, M., Lutz, W., & Delgadillo, J. (2017). How durable is the effect of low intensity CBT for depression and anxiety? Remission and relapse in a longitudinal cohort study. Behaviour research and therapy, 94, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2017.04.006
Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. (2008). Effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: A meta-analysis. JAMA, 300(13), 1551–1565. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.300.13.1551. This meta-analysis examined 23 studies involving over 1,000 patients and found that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (lasting at least one year or 50 sessions) was significantly more effective than shorter-term therapies in treating complex mental disorders, including personality disorders and chronic conditions.
37 W 26th St, New York, NY 10010
I offer both in-person and virtual therapy sessions. For those new to therapy or seeking a deeper connection, in-person sessions in my Manhattan office provide a distraction-free environment for our work together.
Virtual sessions are available for clients throughout New York and California.
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Corresponding to the Monterey Park Tragedy, I am grateful to ABC News Sacramento to be interviewed in their segment on raising awareness of the barriers for those in the AAPI community seeking mental health support, & to provide resources so that people can begin to heal.
Watch Interview