Welcome. I’m Connie. It is nice to meet you.

The dominant discourse of your life – family, friends, society – tells you how you should be. What you are not enough of. What you are too much of. How you should show up in the world. You feel constantly conflicted. Sacrificing your authentic self, who you truly want to become, to fulfill others’ expectations. To become who they want you to be. The constant internal struggle seems unmanageable and overwhelming.

I understand these feelings. I have been there. On my journey to becoming a therapist, I realized I wanted to empower others to find their voice and liberate themselves from the narratives society has told them they needed to become. I can help you get in touch with your authentic self. I can show you that the stories that you told yourself of who you are, are not permanent. These stories can be changed. Together, we can prioritize your self-development. I can help guide you on your journey towards self-awareness and self-empowerment.

Therapy for Teens and Young Adults

Watching your teen grow up is an incredible and rewarding journey as a parent. You have never been happier than when your teen learns, grows, and succeeds. You have also never been more upset when your teen struggles. Lately, you have noticed your teen is struggling more than usual. It might be school stressors, social stressors, or problems you cannot find the cause of because they won’t communicate with you. As a parent, this is very stressful and painful.

Building a trusted relationship with a teen’s therapist can be a step towards helping your teen. As a therapist for teens, I can help them face their current challenges. From depression, anxiety, school, social phobias, friendship building, low self-esteem, and more, teens can face many serious challenges and need help developing coping skills.

In therapy, I create a safe and comfortable space for your teen. I invite your child to have the courage to share any thoughts that they might not feel comfortable sharing with family. Together we will begin to identify their emotions, feelings, and strengths, as well as the challenges they are currently facing. I will help guide them to break negative behavior patterns, and focus on using their strengths to build positive, foundational coping tools they can use for the rest of their lives.

Therapy for Trauma and PTSD

No matter what type or age of trauma occurred, traumatic experiences have lasting effects. They affect future experiences, including relationships, friendships, health, work-life, and more. Most mental health issues are connected to trauma that one has suffered. Early attachment patterns repeat themselves into adulthood and can be subconsciously normalized. Often, individuals who have suffered abuse or trauma as children find themselves in abusive relationships as an adult.

As a Korean American adult who experienced family violence myself, I see you. I understand your struggles, attachments, and the difficulty of leaving abusive relationships. The complexities of love, attachment with abusers, and an abusive dynamic. I can empathize with you, and as a therapist, I am an outsider to your specific trauma cycle, relationships, and potential PTSD. I can view the situation with a holistic lens and connect the dots that may be seemingly disconnected. I can help you in uncovering the roots of your pain and unhealthy behavior patterns. Together, we can work to alter these patterns and change the narratives by which you live. I can help empower you to change the disempowering stories you have lived and continue to repeat to yourself.

I will help guide you towards different perspectives and help normalize your experience while building self-awareness. We will get in touch with your somatic experiences, using the body as information. Your ability to choose your destiny and identity will broaden. I will help you by identifying patterns that cause continuous, chronic suffering. Together we will find your path of peace. You will begin to feel empowered and in control of your own life, rather than being controlled by the traumatic experiences you have survived.
We will explore the disempowering stories you have told yourself, to create a strong foundation for the future.

We will come together to explore your experiences, including the traumas that have kept you from fulfilling the life you want and even the everyday experiences that are holding you back. We will explore the thoughts that occur in your mind and where they come from in order to better understand how to dismantle them.

Through therapy, we work on developing a sense of empowerment and self-awareness that allows you to discover what it is that you want out of your life and how you want to achieve it. While compassion is an extremely important aspect of this process, so is a somewhat ‘tough love’ approach that pushes you to become the person that you want to be.

You have the power to achieve great things for your life and be the person you want to be, and our sessions will explore just how you can come to achieve that.

Therapy for Perfectionism & Anxiety

You have always pushed yourself to do your best and to be the best, and while in some ways this has served you well (possibly pushing you to the forefront of your career or school), it has also caused you a great deal of heartache in other ways. You have felt pulled in too many directions, exhausted, overwhelmed, and a great deal more as you struggle to achieve the best at every turn.

Perfectionism and anxiety can push you to do well, but when they become too overwhelming they can take over your life. When that happens you may find yourself struggling to enjoy the things that you do because you’re overwhelmed by what could happen if you don’t do it ‘right.’

Through therapy, we will work to understand the root of your anxiety and perfectionism and tailor it down to a healthy level that will help you succeed in your life but feel fulfilled in ways that are important to your overall health and wellbeing. We will explore what it takes to be ‘good’ and to recognize where this level of good can make you happier in life.

Therapy for POCs & Asian Americans

You have traveled to this country as an immigrant, or you are an intergenerational family that doesn’t fit the stereotypical ‘norms’ of society. Or perhaps you have lived here all your life but have experienced traumas as a result of your race or background. You feel as though others think you ‘don’t belong’ no matter how hard you try to make yourself part of the crowd.

Being who you are is extremely important and learning to accept and love yourself for everything that you are can be liberating. It can also be difficult for many. But you can come to understand the beauty of who you are and what you bring to the table whenever you are there.

Through therapy, we will work to understand the experiences you have had both within your family and outside of it and how those things have shaped who you have become. We will look at what you can do to become the person that you are meant to be and to truly accept and love that person for all of their flaws and all of their amazing uniqueness.

Who I am and what you should know

After studying economics and mathematics in college, I had a life in a different career for several years until I decided to return to school to study clinical psychology in 2018. And this led me to start my career as a therapist much later than most of my colleagues. But I believe that this showcases, even more, the power of change and the fact that it is never too late to become the person that you are meant to be.

Early in my career as a therapist, I worked with children, youth, and families in South LA who have experienced trauma. I also worked with parenting groups, especially related to those who had suffered from domestic violence and trauma as a result of their childhoods and upbringing.

These experiences, as well as therapy courses in Gestalt Theory, Existential Theory, Anti-Oppressive Therapy model, Feminist Theory, and Narrative Therapy, have allowed me to develop an approach that is based in love, compassion, understanding, and just the right mix of challenges to inspire my clients to take that next step and the one after that until they can achieve their goals.

When not at work I love writing, and have been exploring creative nonfiction, and have been reading books that explore the love of life. Not only that but I enjoy playing the piano, engaging in hiking, yoga, kickboxing, and experiencing open mic nights and stand-up comedy both as a participant and an audience member.

My goal in life is to leave a footprint behind that inspires and guides others into a healthy and beautiful life.

Registered California Board of Behavioral Sciences Number: AMFT 123995

Supervised by Nadia Islam, LCSW 24725