Therapy for Asian Americans

Online Therapy in California

Your Identities Matter

As a second-generation Asian American daughter of immigrants, I understand you may feel caught between cultural expectations, identities, or ways of understanding yourself. You may struggle to connect with family and cultures while also feeling hurt, frustrated, or guilt for being part of them. You might be navigating family expectations, cultural identity, intergenerational trauma, racial discrimination, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or questions about where you belong. Sometimes these experiences can leave us feeling like we have to choose between honoring our ancestral origins and being fully ourselves. Therapy can be a space to explore these experiences without having to minimize them, explain away your feelings, or choose one part of yourself over another.

Family Expectations, Culture & Belonging

You may have learned to prioritize peace-keeping, achievements, or the needs of others. Your cultures have defined for you what it means to be successful, respectful, or a “good” child. These messages made us perfectionists, people-pleasers, and struggle with difficulty setting boundaries, all the while still feeling shame, or feeling disconnected from our own needs. I don't believe healing requires rejecting your family or culture. Instead, we can explore which beliefs and expectations still feel meaningful to you, which ones may no longer serve you, and what it might look like to develop a relationship with yourself that feels more authentic.

Intergenerational Trauma & Family Patterns

Our experiences don't happen in isolation. Family histories, migration experiences, racism, cultural expectations, and unresolved trauma can influence the ways that families relate to one another across generations. You may find yourself carrying fears, beliefs, or patterns that seem bigger than your own experiences. Together, we can explore these patterns without blaming yourself or your family. Understanding where these patterns come from can create space to decide what you want to carry forward—and what you want to leave behind.

“Fear-based motivation is like fossil fuels -- they get the engine running, but they burn dirty."
Dr. Jenny T Wang
{sucjp;pgost, Writer

Intergenerational Trauma & Family Patterns​

Our experiences don’t happen in isolation. Ancestral histories, migration (or forced migration) experiences, racism, cultural expectations, and unresolved trauma can influence the ways that community members relate to one another across generations.
You carry the fears, beliefs, or patterns that seem bigger than your own experiences, but yet no one talks about it in your communit.
Together, we can explore these patterns without blaming yourself or your family. Understanding where these patterns come from can create space to decide what you want to carry forward—and what you want to leave behind.

Perfectionism, People-Pleasing & Self-Worth

You may have internalized cultural and family expectations, and stayed on top of the pressure to perform, stay perfect, and to please everyone, and yet you still feel bad about yourself. 
Maybe you feel like you always need to accomplish more, become more successful, not disappointing others, or keep the peace. You may struggle to recognize your own needs or feel guilty when you prioritize yourself.
Over time, this can contribute to low self-worth, harsh self-criticism, anxiety, burnout, and a persistent feeling that you’re not doing enough.
In our sessions together, we can work together and begin to separate your own values and desires from the expectations you’ve inherited, while developing greater self-compassion and trust in yourself.

Racial Trauma & Experiences of Othering

Throughout the history of this country, Asian Americans and members of the diaspora have had the experience of navigating racism, stereotypes, microaggressions, fetishization, invisibility, or the pressure to fit into other people’s ideas about “who we are”.
Over lifetimes, our sense of safety, belonging, self-worth, and identities become compromised.
You don’t have to convince yourself that something “wasn’t that bad” simply because someone else experienced something worse. Your experiences deserve space to be acknowledged and understood.

A Liberation-Focused & Anti-Oppressive Approach

I believe that our struggles and suffering don’t exist separately from the environments and systems we live in.
I consider how race, culture, family, gender, sexuality, identity, and systems of oppression can shape our experiences of ourselves and our relationships, and I invite you into these considerations in our sessions.
Rather than asking you to simply adapt to systems or expectations that may have caused harm, we can explore what it means to develop greater agency, self-trust, and freedom.
I won’t tell you what your relationship with your family or culture should look like. We explore. You get to decide what healing, authenticity, and belonging mean for you.

LGBTQ+ and Asian American Identity

Asian American identities intersects with gender and sexuality, and I have firsthand experience with this growing up.
You may have been navigating cultural or family expectations around gender, sexuality, relationships, or marriage while also trying to understand and honor your LGBTQ+ identity.
You deserve a therapy space where your cultural identity and your gender or sexual identity don’t have to compete for recognition.
As a second-generation queer LGBTQ+ affirming therapist, I welcome the complexity of exploring these intersections and what belonging can look like.

Is online therapy right for me?

There is no one therapy approach that works for everyone.
I provide online therapy to adults throughout California. Virtual therapy allows us to work together from a space where you can feel comfortable and grounded.
If you’re looking for an Asian American therapist in California who understands the intersections of trauma, culture, identity, family, and belonging, I’d be happy to connect and see whether we’re a good fit.

How I can help you...

My approach integrates Brainspotting and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), along with Liberation Psychology, Critical Race Theory, identity and belonging work, and exploration of the intersections of culture, race, gender, and sexuality. I incorporate somatic awareness, mindfulness, and self-compassion to help you notice how stress and trauma can be held in the body, while creating space to process difficult experiences and develop greater awareness of the patterns you may have learned or inherited.

Together, we explore how trauma, racism, oppression, family patterns, cultural experiences, and identities may shape the way you see yourself, relate to others, and experience your body and emotions. 

Our sessions together help to put language to your experiences, process and heal trauma, understand intergenerational and learned patterns, challenge internalized oppressive beliefs, and reconnect with your identity and sense of belonging. I support you in developing greater self-compassion, resilience, agency, and liberating yourself to live more authentically—while reclaiming the parts of yourself, your culture, and your story that may have been silenced.

Connect with Angel
Brainspotting Trauma Therapy
Schedule a free 15 minutes phone consultation
619-719-5567
angel@crescentshorespsychotherapy.com
Connect with Angel
I live and work on unceded land of Kumeyaay Nation.
To learn more and join me in supporting Indigenous communities,
visit Native Governance Center, Museum of Us, and Native Lands.
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