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 first-generation college students and professionals who grew up in Flushing, Sunset Park, and Manhattan Chinatown.
To those who grew up in unstable, emotionally unsafe households.
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 and therapist 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 fixing anything internally.
Therapy changed that. 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.
Today, I work with high-achieving adults whose stories often mirror my own. Most of my clients understand their patterns intellectually but still feel stuck emotionally, falling back into the same safety behaviors they developed during childhood. My approach is relational, culturally informed, and focused on what can only shift inside a consistent, attuned therapeutic relationship. My doctoral research on shame and self-esteem in Chinese-American families deepened my understanding of the 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.
In December 2024, I visited my paternal grandparents' memorial in Shenzhen with my parents, my brother, and several relatives. Standing there, looking out at the ocean, I saw my immigrant parents clearly for the first time: their aging, their decades of sacrifice, and the emotional cost of an immigrant story that so many families carry alone.
I wrote about that visit, what I saw, and why it drives the work I do.
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. I work with you to understand the deeper beliefs and patterns that influence how you process stress, make decisions, and relate to others.
Learn More →If you find yourself overthinking every text, bracing for rejection before it arrives, or pulling away just as someone gets close, those patterns were learned somewhere. I help adults trace them back to their early emotional origins and build new ways of relating. 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.
Navigating family expectations, dating across cultures, the weight of model minority pressure, the toll of microaggressions: living between two cultures carries costs that are easy to minimize. I grew up in that in-between space, and I bring that understanding to my work.
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. In therapy, I use the therapy relationship itself to reshape these deeply ingrained relational attitudes. 12 months of treatment would be considered short-term, and many of my clients work with me for multiple years. It is through the aggregate process of therapy contact that enduring change occurs.
I go deeper into this question, including the research behind long-term psychodynamic work and why I ask for a 1x a week cadence, on my FAQ page.
303 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016
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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