Individual Therapy for Young People of Color Healing from Trauma and Substance Misuse

Telehealth in Colorado and PSYPACT Participating States

Space to Slow Down

Navigating Life’s Challenges with Support and Understanding

Asian American girl looking out of the window pondering life

Growing up in today’s world can be overwhelming—especially if you’re carrying the weight of family and social expectations, stigma, peer pressure, social comparisons, and/or unprocessed trauma, all while trying to just hold it all together. You might have thought to yourself at some point (or many points):

  • What’s wrong with me?

  • Why do I keep doing this?

  • Why can’t I just feel normal?

  • Is it me—or is it everyone else?

Whether you’re struggling with substance use, trauma, anxiety, depression, or feeling disconnected from yourself or the world around you, therapy can help you figure out what’s really going on—and start building something that feels better, steadier, and more like you.

Is Therapy Right for You?

If you’ve been holding it together—but barely—this might be your sign…

  • You’re tired of pretending everything is fine when it’s not.

  • You feel misunderstood, isolated, or like you don’t quite fit anywhere.

  • You’re find yourself doing drugs, doom scrolling on social media, or using other distractions so you don’t have to deal with life’s stuff.

  • You feel pressure to succeed but struggle with motivation or self-doubt.

  • You keep finding yourself in the same stuck cycles, and you don’t know how to break them.

  • You know there’s pain from your past that still lingers—but you’re not sure where to begin.

  • You can’t talk to the people in your life about what’s really going on because you’re afraid they won’t get it—or worse, tell you it’s not that serious.

  • You’re sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

Asian American girl feeling overwhelmed by school work and family responsibilities asking for help

My Approach

You’re the captain of the ship.
I’m just helping you navigate it.

My therapy style is warm, real, and collaborative. I won’t tell you how to live your life—but I will help you understand yourself more deeply, make sense of what’s been getting in your way, and learn how to move through it.

You are the expert of your own life—you are the captain of the ship; I'm just helping you sail it and get where you want to go.

I draw from trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches that support both emotional healing and cultural identity. Some of the tools we might use together include:

  • Our early relationships—especially with family—shape how we see ourselves, how we connect with others, and how we deal with pain. If no one ever showed you how to talk about emotions or meet your needs, it makes sense that those patterns are still showing up now.

    In individual therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy helps you:

    • Understand where your pain comes from – Anxiety, depression, and self-doubt often have roots in old wounds or survival strategies that never got updated.

    • Notice and shift unhelpful patterns – If you keep ending up in the same types of relationships or reactions, we’ll work on understanding why—so you can make different choices.

    • Make space for emotions you’ve had to bury – In cultures where emotional expression is discouraged, therapy gives you room to feel without judgment.

    • Build self-awareness and emotional insight – When you understand your own story, you start to feel more in control of it.

    This isn’t just about “talking about your past”—it’s about seeing how your past still lives in the present, and learning how to stop it from running the show.

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)helps you stop fighting your thoughts and feelings—and start making space for them, without letting them take over your life.

    In individual therapy, ACT helps you:

    • Let go of the need to “fix” everything – Instead of pushing feelings down or pretending they don’t exist, you’ll learn how to sit with them in a way that feels manageable and grounded.

    • Stop spiraling in your thoughts – ACT helps you get out of loops of overthinking, self-judgment, or “what ifs” and learn to relate to your mind differently.

    • Figure out what actually matters to you – Not what your family, culture, or social media says should matter—but what you care about. And how to live by that, even when it’s hard.

    • Make empowered choices, even when emotions are loud – We’ll work on building the kind of strength that doesn’t come from controlling everything—but from knowing you can handle whatever comes up.

    ACT shifts therapy from “get rid of this feeling” to “how can I live the life I want—even with this feeling?” And that shift changes everything.

  • At the root of so many struggles—anxiety, depression, disconnection, substance use—is a need to feel emotionally safe, seen, and connected. Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) helps you explore the deeper emotions beneath your patterns, so you can heal old wounds and build more fulfilling relationships—with others and with yourself.

    In individual therapy, EFIT helps you:

    • Understand emotional wounds you’ve had to carry alone – Maybe you’ve been praised for being strong, but never supported in feeling. Or maybe trust has always felt risky. EFIT helps you process those experiences with care and self-compassion.

    • Heal from feeling unseen, unloved, or “too much” – If your needs were ignored or judged growing up, therapy offers a space where your emotions are valid, not shameful.

    • Shift from self-blame to self-understanding – Many of us carry quiet stories of “I’m too sensitive” or “I should be over this by now.” EFIT helps you untangle those stories and meet yourself with more kindness.

    • Build safer, more secure relationships – This work doesn’t just help you feel better alone—it helps you show up more fully in your relationships without fear, shutdown, or guilt.

    With EFIT, therapy becomes a space to not just talk about emotions—but to experience them differently. That’s where deep, lasting healing begins.

  • Sometimes, talking isn’t enough. When trauma lives deep in the body or feels too overwhelming to explain, Brainspottingcan help you process it in a way that feels more intuitive and less pressured.

    In individual therapy, Brainspotting helps you:

    • Go deeper than words – You don’t need to retell every detail. Brainspotting uses eye positions and body awareness to gently access the parts of the brain where trauma, stress, or emotional pain gets stuck.

    • Work through stuck emotions without getting overwhelmed – Instead of reliving painful memories, Brainspotting lets your brain and body lead the healing—at your own pace.

    • Reduce emotional reactivity and triggers – Over time, many people find they’re less activated by the things that used to shut them down or spin them out.

    • Feel more connected to yourself again – When trauma or stress disconnects you from your body or emotions, Brainspotting helps bring you back—gently.

    This approach is especially helpful if you’ve felt stuck in traditional talk therapy, or if your body remembers things you don’t have words for yet.

  • Therapy isn’t just about mental health—it’s about identity, culture, and how the world has taught you to survive. Multicultural Therapy and Liberation Psychology recognize that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s shaped by your family history, cultural values, systemic oppression, and the stories you were raised with.

    In individual therapy, this approach helps you:

    • Validate your cultural and racial experiences – Therapy isn’t about forcing Western ideas of healing onto your story. It’s about honoring where you come from, and how things like silence, shame, or “saving face” have shaped your mental health.

    • Explore bicultural and intergenerational tension – If you’ve ever felt not Asian enough, not American enough, or like you’re constantly code-switching just to get by—this is a space where you don’t have to perform.

    • Challenge emotional stigma without rejecting your culture – Maybe you were taught that emotions = weakness. Here, you’ll learn to feel without guilt—and to heal without erasing your roots.

    • Balance family duty with personal truth – You don’t have to choose between honoring your family and honoring yourself. Therapy helps you make space for both.

    It’s about naming what you were never allowed to name—then choosing what you want to carry forward. It’s about reclaiming your story, your voice, and your right to be whole.

  • At its core, Buddhist Philosophy teaches that pain is a part of life—but suffering doesn’t have to define us. Therapy that draws from Buddhist wisdom helps you meet emotional pain with mindfulness, compassion, and curiosity instead of judgment or control.

    In individual therapy, this approach helps you:

    • Accept change and uncertainty – When you’ve been taught to plan, perfect, or push through, it can feel terrifying to let go. This approach helps you soften your grip on things you can’t control—and find steadiness anyway.

    • Interrupt spirals of shame and overthinking – Instead of getting stuck in the past or consumed by what-ifs, we practice being present with what’s actually here.

    • Let go of the stories that keep you stuck – Whether it’s self-blame, old roles, or impossible standards, therapy helps you loosen your attachment to the things that no longer serve you.

    • Treat yourself with compassion—not criticism – You don’t have to earn your own kindness. Buddhist-informed therapy helps you meet yourself with more patience, care, and understanding—even when things feel hard.

    This isn’t about becoming detached or passive. It’s about learning to move through life with more clarity, intention, and inner peace—even when things are messy.

Areas of Specialty

Stuff they say you’re not supposed to talk about
— but we will

  • Substance use doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For many teens and young adults—especially those navigating trauma, family pressure, cultural stigma, or mental health challenges—it can become a way to cope with pain, numb out, or feel in control.

    If you come from a family or culture where addiction is seen as a moral failing, not a mental health issue, asking for help can feel almost impossible. Shame, secrecy, and fear of judgment can keep the cycle going—and make everyone feel even more alone.

    In therapy, we don’t just focus on the substance. We look at what’s underneath it—the pain, the patterns, the survival strategies—and work together to build healthier ways of coping. Whether you're struggling yourself or supporting someone who is, we'll explore tools that help you reduce harm, stay grounded, and take steps toward healing that actually sticks.

  • Trauma can shape the way you think, feel, and relate to others—even when you don’t realize it. For teens and young adults, it might show up as emotional overwhelm, disconnection, people-pleasing, shutting down, or self-sabotage. Sometimes, it doesn’t look like trauma at all—it just feels like something’s always “off.”

    For folks from marginalized communities, trauma is often layered—with systemic injustice, cultural silence, and intergenerational pain woven in. That kind of trauma doesn’t just live in the past—it lives in your body, your relationships, your sense of safety.

    In therapy, we work gently and intentionally to untangle that. Through body-based and emotionally focused approaches, we create space to process what’s happened, restore a sense of safety, and build resilience in a way that honors your culture, your story, and your pace.

  • You might feel stuck, numb, or disconnected—or like your brain won’t slow down and you’re constantly overwhelmed. Maybe you shut down. Maybe you overthink everything. Maybe both. Either way, it’s exhausting.

    If you’ve ever been told you’re lazy, too sensitive, or too much, you might have learned to hide how bad things really feel. Depression and anxiety in young people of color often don’t look like what people expect. They might show up as anger, fighting, lashing out, doing drugs, partying too much, overworking, or shutting down completely. Sometimes it gets labeled as “disrespectful,” “lazy,” or “out of control”—but underneath, it’s pain, fear, or pressure no one taught you how to name. They can also show up as burnout, isolation, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or never feeling like you’re “enough.”

    In therapy, we slow things down and make space for the feelings you’ve had to hold in. We’ll work on understanding your patterns, building emotional tools, and reconnecting with the parts of you that have been shut out or pushed aside. This isn’t about 'fixing' you—it’s about helping you feel safe in your own skin again.

  • ADHD isn’t just about focus—it’s about having a brain that works differently in a world that wasn’t built for it. For young people of color, especially those in families that value discipline, order, or emotional control, ADHD can be misunderstood as laziness, defiance, or “not trying hard enough.”

    You might find yourself zoning out, forgetting things, saying stuff you didn’t mean to, or crashing after bursts of energy. Maybe you overwork to hide it. Maybe you’ve been told you’re “too much” your whole life—or started using substances to quiet the noise.

    In therapy, we explore how your brain works—without labeling you or trying to make you fit into a mold. We build tools for focus, time, and emotion regulation—but we also work on releasing the shame. ADHD support is about more than just executive functioning—it’s about seeing yourself clearly and finally feeling understood.

  • Growing up between cultures can feel like constantly switching versions of yourself—what’s expected at home doesn’t always match what’s expected in the world. For teens and young adults of color, especially those from immigrant families, this can lead to deep confusion, isolation, and pressure to be everything for everyone.

    You might struggle with feeling “not enough” in any space—or carry guilt for wanting something different than what your family imagined for you. On top of that, the impact of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, or gender-based discrimination can make it even harder to feel safe, seen, or worthy.

    In therapy, we create space to unpack all of it—cultural identity, family expectations, intergenerational conflict, and systemic stress. You’ll have room to process what’s been passed down to you, explore who you are, and build a more grounded, confident relationship with your story.

  • How we learn to connect—or protect ourselves—in relationships often starts early. If you grew up with emotional distance, chaos, or pressure to perform instead of express, it makes sense if you struggle to trust people, open up, or feel safe being close to others.

    Attachment wounds don’t always look like fear—they can show up as pushing people away, getting “too close too fast,” emotional shutdowns, or constantly fearing you’re ‘too much’ or ‘not enough.’ Sometimes, relationships feel overwhelming. Sometimes, they feel impossible.

    In therapy, we explore those patterns with care and curiosity—not blame. You’ll learn how your early experiences shaped the way you relate to others, and how to build safer, more connected relationships—starting with the one you have with yourself.

  • Supporting a teen through substance use is hard—especially when no one talks about it and parents who have not gone through it just don’t understand. People might make you feel like you’re a bad parent, like you’re doing something wrong, when in reality, you’re doing everything you can—often in silence, often alone.

    Parents often carry guilt, shame, or fear of being judged, especially in families or cultures where mental health and addiction are taboo. It can feel like you’re failing, even when you’re trying your hardest to hold it all together.

    Parent coaching creates a space where you don’t have to have all the answers. Together, we’ll look at what’s underneath your teen’s struggles—like trauma, anxiety, peer pressure, or emotional overwhelm—and explore how you can support their healing without losing yourself in the process.

    You’ll learn tools to reduce conflict, rebuild trust, and communicate in ways that actually land. We’ll also talk about how to care for you—because your stress, grief, trauma, and fear deserve attention too. You don’t have to do this alone, and you don’t have to do it perfectly to make a difference. You just have to stay in the room—and we’ll figure it out together.