Dual Diagnosis Therapists in Mercer Island, WA

My Clients: I regularly work with clients on common issues such as: major life transitions, depression, anxiety, struggles with work-life balance, racial identity, family of origin issues, grief, trauma, and addiction recovery. I am passionate about working with: People of color, Students, people who identify as possessing multiple minority identities, LGBTQIA+, relationship problems, bicultural stress, cultural adjustment, sexual trauma, and issues related to sexual identity and gender. I am also comfortable working with non-heteronormative relationship lifestyles; particularly navigating issues related to open/poly relationships.

I believe in honoring your intersecting identities and how they contextualize your experience. As a multicultural/mixed Asian American (Korean/Filipino/white), highly sensitive, queer femme, the question of how to navigate life in the duality has perpetually challenged and inspired me throughout my life, delivering me to this work. I'm passionate about working with clients of marginalized gender, sexuality, and racial identities who are exploring their truths related to culture, race, generation, and queerness. I hope that together we can explore the important intersection of personal transformation and social change.

I am an integrative and culturally sensitive driven therapist who works with adults to unlearn systemic inequalities and process intergenerational trauma, grief, and anxiety, so you can confidently befriend your feelings, navigate life transitions, step into authenticity, and feel more at home in yourself. Often times when we are going through something difficult, it can be hard to see our way out. This may lead to spiraling thoughts, a lost sense of security and safety, thinking "I'm not good enough", consistently feeling on edge, and feeling disconnected from ourselves and others.

I have worked in a variety of settings with virtually all walks of life. My areas of specialization include chronic pain, life transitions, loss, sleep issues, caregivers, issues associated with aging, and disabilities.

As an organization we recognize that QTBIPoC folx tend to experience disproportionate amounts of mental health disparities due to large gaps in our current mental healthcare system. Here at MEND we believe that part of addressing those gaps is through the consistency of our intersectional feminist lens. In an effort to promote equity, we are expanding our team and client population to include members who hold identities that have not traditionally been offered at MEND. And while we center supporting QTBIPoC folx, we also offer services to those who do not hold these identities.

I aim to empower others like me who have constantly heard “it is not okay to go to therapy and share your personal life with anyone,” to help shift this tabooed narrative into a more positive one. It is OKAY to share your personal life with someone who can help build that trusting relationship with you, and it is also okay to express your feelings and emotions without feeling the pressures of shame and guilt. I use the space we create together to encourage deconstructing harmful internalized messages, processing experiences of attachment and trauma, and managing relational and personal challenges.

My approach is tailored to meet your goals and may include helping you solve your problems, develop your strengths, and provide skills to increase your daily life effectiveness. Often, this process involves giving attention to the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and experiences that hinder living a balanced and meaningful life. My deliverance when working with clients is client-centered, collaborative, and non-judgmental.

I am an artist/poet turned therapist. My method is to slowly build a therapeutic relationship, uncover strengths, and move toward client-identified treatment goals. I support clients to externalize problematic narratives or inner states they are stuck in through creative mediums. Once clients are resourced and can see, and then interact with their patterns and parts they make changes. Together we discover and incorporate parts of the self that had to go underground due to trauma or oppression. Clients emerge from their work, whole and empowered.

The primary focus of my work is providing diagnostic, neuropsychological, psycho-educational, and psychological assessments and intervention planning for children, adolescents, and families. Assessment services are available to most school-aged children, teenagers, and young adults. I offer psychotherapeutic services to children, adolescents and young adults with social, emotional and behavioral challenges and a wide range of diagnostic issues including (but not limited to): Depression, ADHD, Anxiety Disorders, Issues related to Sexual Identity, Autism Spectrum Disorders, OCD, and Tourette's Syndrome. I use evidence-based treatments (including CBT) and incorporate various therapeutic styles in my work with children and families.

You may be feeling that the strands of your life are unraveling and you want to make sense of it all. My private practice, Tapestry Therapy, is founded upon the belief that your life is like a tapestry, consisting of strands of stories that have been woven together to make one larger story. Our story is part of the larger tapestry of our family, race, culture, country and world. Through the work of therapy, we come to understand our stories and be empowered to decide how we will write future chapters. I utilize process therapy and Lifespan Integration, which is a somatic therapy, to help my clients reach their goals.