Chih-Yun (Eileen) Chiu

LMHC

Growing up in an Asian household, emotional expressiveness was minimum and suppression was viewed as a strength. When I left home to study abroad at a young age, while feeling very grateful to have the privilege of developing my international and multicultural identity, I also experienced many challenges in being able to relate to people and felt overwhelmed by the diversity. This made asking for help and support even more difficult. I experienced ongoing ruminating thoughts and emotions related to impostor’s syndrome, failure, fear, guilt, shame and rejection. I also experienced outright discrimination and microaggression. It was truly a trial and error process that felt very lonely, and isolating. I learned to develop my own toolkit to self-soothe. (Today, I call myself a trained extrovert!). I met peers along the way in similar circumstances whose outcome wasn’t as fortunate. Throughout this journey, one thought persisted through my mind: how can I show up for others during their moments of pain and loneliness? This drive became a source of strength for me to work on myself so I can also be present for others. I believe in healing one another. Hence choosing this profession, and being a support on other's journey, especially those with marginalized identities, felt very natural!

“Progress” or “success” in therapy isn’t so black and white. Therapy isn’t a linear process because healing and recovery is an ongoing and active practice that you have to choose, which embodies making mistakes, and experiencing setbacks. I call these moments “progress” and “success” because you are being active in being the most honest you can be with yourself, taking courageous steps to being vulnerable and uncomfortable and making the painstaking and painful adjustments and changes. Habits and patterns take time to build and even longer to dismantle, adjust and rebuild. That being said, it can be helpful to create a treatment plan. We will identify your goals and objectives, and establish a plan (and timeline if you wish) for how to approach in a manageable, measurable, achievable and relevant way. The goal is to be flexible with our treatment plan as it may shift and transform overtime. Ultimately we hope to create a toolkit that will be yours to help you navigate day to day with more moments of intentionality, capability and meaningfulness

There is no “right” way to do therapy, there is no rule book/recipe for living healthy, and there are no quick fixes! As therapists, we use our self and our humanness as a tool to build a genuine connection with our clients to empower clients to build an authentic relationship with themselves, others and the world. It is very normal and valid to feel stressed, nervous and anxious going into therapy. There is no expectation to perform in any type of way. Sometimes sessions may feel uncomfortable, distressing and meandering while other times it may feel refreshing, relieving and enlightening. On some days we may feel that there is too much to talk about while other days we may engage in more silence. This is all part of the process. This is an intimate space where we will take our time to build together. I will meet you where you are, and provide gentle encouragement and prompts when you need as well as let you take the lead. You are not alone. Allow me to be a grounding center and place of safety for you and serve as your sidekick on your journey. As therapists, we also engage in therapy to heal our wounds, work through our own biases and assumptions, improve our qualities and capabilities and to better relate to being in our client’s shoes.