What Am I Like As A Therapist?
My Therapeutic Style
Solo trip to Rome, Italy
I incorporate my personality into my practice. I’ve been to therapists who were robotic and would say things like, “This isn’t about me, this is about you”, when I would try to get to know them. It felt weird to share personal things to a stranger. I don’t want to be a stranger to you. I’m open about my flaws and mistakes if you ask because after all, no one is perfect.
My personality has been described by friends and colleagues as calm and easy going—you will not scare me away with chaos or “shocking” revelations. I am compassionate and personable—I believe it’s good for therapists to be human and show some emotion. I have cheered clients on for their successes, cried with them in moments of grief and sadness, and laughed and joked together about this strange thing we call life. I will be honest and forthcoming with you so you won’t have to guess what I’m “really” thinking—that’s because I see us as a team. If you disagree with something I said, you can tell me. That’s when I know that we truly trust each other—because I understand that therapy takes an immense amount of trust.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
Me & Mom
As mentioned briefly, I was born and raised in Japan. I remember trying to fit in when I moved here. I remember my parents being stricter than “American parents”. I remember kids always pointing out how different I am, rather than helping me feel like I belong. I remember feeling embarrassed of my culture, especially when people used words like “ew”, “weird”, and “smelly”. I wasn’t American enough in America, but not Asian enough in Asia. It took a long time to accept these parts of me that others had rejected.
The truth is that many well-intentioned therapists are taught from a Western perspective and have a hard time understanding the nuances and beauty of other cultures. Family structure, expectations, and societal norms we are raised in informs us of how we view ourselves in relation to the world around us. I believe that there is more than one “correct” way of being and that is what makes our world so colorful.
EMDR
You are so much more than what’s happened to you.
Sometimes trauma takes the form of a very specific event in our lives. Other times, however, trauma occurs without us realizing it at the time: a series of experiences that, over time, impact our sense of safety, joy, or purpose.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based method used to treat traumatic experiences and their impacts. EMDR taps into the natural healing properties of your own mind, allowing you to access your brain’s memory processing systems and rewiring the way it views painful memories.
One of the incredible benefits of EMDR is your control over the process. You can choose how much to share with me and what you’d like to work on; I’m simply here as a guide to help you tap into your own intellectual and emotional strength.
As we begin the therapy process, we’ll decide if EMDR is the best method to help you reach your goals.
IFS
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence-based model that is used for long term healing. It is based on the idea that we are all born with a core Self that embodies our essence and all of our finest qualities, like compassion, creativity, and wisdom. But as we begin dealing with life experiences, we develop defense mechanisms—parts that want to keep us safe from harm or pain. Some parts do this in an outwardly positive way while other parts protect us in ways that have a more negative effect. In the IFS Model, we help these parts heal not by pushing them away, but by getting to know them better and understanding the underlying needs.
Strength-Based Therapy
Strength-based therapy guides you toward understand your personal history of traumas, stressors, and pain with more emphasis on yourself as a survivor than as a victim, and more emphasis on your strengths and survival skills than on your weakness. The goal is for you to recognize that you already have the skills and strength to survive and can use those same strengths to deal with tough situations in other areas of your life.
It’s also used to help accept yourself for who you are, rather than try to fit into expectations of others. At its foundation is the belief that we all have a place in the world and we all have something unique to offer.
Attachment-Based Therapy
In individual therapy, the aim is to overcome the effects of negative early attachment issues. This is done by exploring and understanding how current feelings and behaviors are associated with earlier experiences.
ABFT: Attachment-Based Family Therapy aims at repairing the family relationship. This is done with the individual adolescent client alone and also with the family as a group. The therapist works with the family to build and strengthen the parent-teen bond and help the teen to develop into an independent, self-sufficient adult.