I am a 2nd generation Korean American from Baltimore, MD living in Miami, FL providing in person and telehealth therapy services in MA and FL. I graduated from Yale University and worked in pastoral care for 7 years before returning to graduate school for my master's in counseling psychology. Since then, I have worked at a residential treatment center for latency aged and adolescent youth in state care and at college counseling centers. Although no longer a Christian counselor, I view moral formation as one of the primary developmental tasks of adulthood. I have over 10 years of experience specializing in depression, anxiety, issues of acceptance and belonging, spiritual/religious transitions, identity/moral formation, career issues, relationships, stage of life issues, and family of origin issues.
In our first session we will explore the present distress, and I will take a physical and mental health inventory across the lifespan. We will identify current coping behaviors and assess functioning across romantic, friends, family, work, and social domains. We will identify tentative goals and create a rudimentary treatment plan to refine over time to begin work on those goals.
My authentic concern for client flourishing and my interpersonal warmth match best with clients who desire a dynamic relationship with their therapist. Clients also seeking accurate insight in the safety of a secure attachment to their therapist will be pleased by my understanding of the paradoxes, absurdities, and joys of human existence.
I work with clients seeking to treat their depression, anxiety, relationship/career issues, and other areas of distress. I work best with clients who seek an engaged relationship with a therapist they trust and respect. Clients also contact me when seeking a therapist with a varied and diverse life experience. Clinically, I use a client centered, humanist/existential style to explore current distress while integrating behavioral interventions (TF-CBT, DBT) and classic insight-oriented exploration. I offer a safe space to look at oneself gently.
Humanistic psychotherapy is optimistic approach toward human growth that believes the natural impulse to thrive and grow can be thwarted by emotional injury and shame. Therapy is a place to rediscover your authentic self and reconnect to that impulse to explore and grow in all its domains.
Existential therapy focuses on the existential demands of life and the understanding that individual choice is most important in accepting the finiteness of life, the role of chance in our families of origin, and the need to accept the privileges and unfairness of life to "play the hand we've been dealt" with awareness, compassion, and strength.
Attachment based therapies acknowledge the fundamental influence relationships have on our sense of self-worth and efficacy. By providing a secure base of unconditional, positive regard, therapists aid clients to explore their most difficult of emotions with acceptance and understanding.