About

Our Clients

  • At Saya, providing support to Asian Americans means recognizing and appreciating the diversity within the community and thinking beyond a false monolithic. We focus on the unique ways that different Asian cultures, traditions, and religions intersect with mental health and well-being. We support clients in navigating acculturation stress, intergenerational conflict, model minority stereotypes, familial and parental expectations, and the pressure to conform to western cultural norms.

  • We know how devastating it is to navigate a world that fails to acknowledge or validate the experiences of BI/POC communities. We recognize that when you reach out for support, your main focus is receiving the help that you need. That is why we strive to provide a space where you can feel seen and understood without having to over explain your identity, your culture, or other parts of what make you, you.

  • Balancing the dual worlds of religion and modernity can be challenging. Saya psychotherapy supports clients as they navigate this delicate balance while staying true to their beliefs and maintaining their overall well-being. It is our priority to offer support that is free of judgment and instead filled with compassion, understanding, and empathy.

  • At Saya Psychotherapy, we focus on making space to celebrate the love and joy of Queerness while supporting clients in navigating any challenges they may encounter around lack of acceptance, judgment, and stigma. We firmly believe that therapy should never fetishize or exoticize queer experiences, and provide a compassionate and validating space to explore the fears, concerns, anxieties, and intricacies that come with Queerness.

    *Queer is an umbrella term that encompasses a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities. It serves as an inclusive term for individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or any other non-normative sexual or gender identity.

Areas of Focus

  • Anxiety can be a constant source of stress and sometimes even physical discomfort. At Saya Psychotherapy, we help you understand the root causes of your anxiety and develop strategies that can help you manage and reduce anxiety symptoms. Through building awareness of your body and your triggers, you can break anxiety spirals and achieve a sense of calm and balance in your life.

  • Depression can be an isolating experience but it doesn’t have to be. At Saya, our therapists will help you explore underlying causes of depression, develop coping strategies to manage symptoms, and set achievable goals toward your healing journey. Our goal is to offer a space for exploration, compassion, and repose to help our clients find relief from their depression.

  • Generational trauma are the emotional and psychological wounds passed down through families, often rooted in histories of systemic oppression, colonization, or violence. It can manifest in anxiety, depression, or patterns of behavior that feel hard to break, even when the original source of harm isn’t always clear or intentional. At our practice, we focus on liberatory care, meaning we aim to help you not just survive but truly heal by addressing these deep wounds and breaking these cycles of harm.

  • Guilt and shame often manifest as self-blame, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. Saya can help you identify the underlying beliefs and messages that contribute to these emotions, and work with them to develop strategies for managing and eventually reducing them.

  • LGBTQ+ individuals face unique challenges and experiences related to their gender identity or sexual orientation, and we strive to provide competent and culturally responsive care. Our therapists are trained to work with clients through an intersectional lens and work with clients on specific concerns of LGBTQ+ communities, such as “coming out,”internalized homophobia, holding dual identities, having to hide oneself, or navigating challenging relationships and family dynamics.

  • We recognize that grief has no timeline, and the healing process can be a slow and unpredictable process that everyone experiences differently. At Saya Psychotherapy, we are here to listen, validate, and guide clients to finding their own path towards healing as they navigate life after loss.

  • Relationships, whether they are romantic, platonic, or undefined, can be challenging to navigate. Whether it's communication breakdowns, challenges with boundary setting, or just feeling disconnected, relationships may leave you feeling overwhelmed and confused. That's why our team of experienced and relational therapists is here to support you every step of the way.

Our Approach to Therapy

We use Internal Family Systems (IFS), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), as well as emotion and attachment focused approaches to help clients feel connected and attuned to themselves and their experiences.

Our hope is that our clients feel supported and empowered to make choices that bring them the most fulfillment despite challenges in the world, like capitalism, racism, and various other isms and societal barriers that might limit this.

"We believe that it is okay to ask for help and that these challenges don’t have to be faced alone, which is why we strive to work from a place of community care and collective liberation.

Even when the external world feels overwhelming or stuck, we are here to help you explore new possibilities and reconnect with your inner world, so you can navigate your path with a greater sense of hope and connectedness to the self.

  • The IFS model encourages individuals to view their inner world as comprising of numerous parts, each with their own distinct experiences, beliefs, emotions. Through compassionate dialogue and internal exploration, we can help these parts feel seen, heard, and validated.

  • This approach prioritizes understanding and healing the emotional experiences and attachment patterns we develop throughout our lives. It focuses on how early relationships shape the way we connect with ourselves and others, guiding us to explore and transform those patterns that may no longer serve us. By working through emotions in a safe and supportive environment, this approach helps us build more secure, meaningful connections with ourselves and those around us.

    It can help you feel more grounded, supported, and empowered in your relationships, even when faced with difficult feelings or past experiences. Ultimately, it fosters a deeper sense of belonging, safety, and emotional well-being.

  • Somatic therapy acknowledges that trauma is not only a cognitive experience, but also a physical one. This approach focuses on helping clients to increase their awareness of their bodily sensations to release the physical sensations stored in the body as a result of trauma. Through this approach, clients learn how to regulate their nervous system, process and release their trapped emotions, and ultimately work through their trauma histories.

[to feel] “...the painful intensity of my sensations, even when they're happy ones; the blissful intensity of my sensations, even when they're sad.”

- Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet