Hi, I’m Hannah. I am so many things:
I move through the world in a mixed race Chinese & white, light skinned, currently able body. I am queer and use she/they pronouns, and love the question my gender is.
In my work, I am a small business owner, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Level 2 Internal Family Systems (IFS) trained therapist.
In my family, I am the oldest daughter. My mom is the child of immigrants and a third culture kid, my dad is a pastor’s kid and child of an alcoholic. Growing up, I filled the position of the golden child who seemed to have it all together even though I was crumbling on the inside.
about me.
In social settings, I am slow to warm but deeply loyal and show up hard for my loved ones. I am often most comfortable as a wall flower, and hate the spotlight.
My creativity comes out most with clay, gardening, and baking - all things I do with an incredible amount of mess.
I am a dancer and a builder and a traveler.
I love food: eating things I grow is a way I practice anti-capitalism abundance, cooking family recipes is a way I feel connected to my culture and ancestors, baking bread for friends is a way I foster community and mutual aid.
My life’s work is helping people reconnect to the power within, in service to collective liberation and an end to systemic oppression. I position individual healing as inextricable from collective healing and envision a world where all that is alive is free.
These are aspects of who I am today. And very different from who I was.
Growing up, I was painfully shy. I would shrink myself and try to disappear - I wanted nothing more than to pass unnoticed. When I couldn’t avoid being seen, I pressured myself to be perfect to avoid judgment and criticism. When I was inevitably not perfect, I judged and criticized myself.
I feared rejection and abandonment, so learned to people please and caregive for others in an attempt to be so likeable that I would never get left. Spending time alone sent me into a pit where I felt condemned to loneliness. I didn’t know myself enough to know my wants and needs, so could never set a boundary. I bounced from friend group to friend group, chasing the Best Friend promised by YA novels & lost myself in relationships, contorting around whoever I was dating, desperate to feel special - to feel chosen.
I was constantly at war with myself over how I ‘should’ act. I scanned for what others were doing, code switching and contorting myself into norms I saw being valued around me: straight & white. This kept me chasing a thing I could never be, while hating who I was and feeling deeply insecure. I was depressed, though at the time I would have told you (and maybe believed) that I was happy.
I struggled with being mixed and never felt like I fit in, though the flavor of this shifted over the years. When I was 5, I wanted to be blonde. When I was 12, I saved for months and tried to pull off highlights. I idolized my white friends and their families and felt embarrassed by my Gong Gong and Bubu’s (grandfather and grandmother’s) accents. As I grew older, I leaned into my Chinese heritage and distanced myself from whiteness. While this brought me back into closeness with my Chinese lineage, it left me avoiding the work of holding my light skinned privilege & proximity to whiteness well.
My journey was (and is) messy, emotional, and at times filled with pain & rawness & vulnerability. Decolonial IFS changed my life, allowing me to shed boxes and protective layers I clung to, radically shifting how I relate to myself and opening up how I connect with others.
Today, I feel more me than I ever have. I hold the past versions of me with love and so much understanding, while being so grateful to know myself & move through the world in the way I do now.
My invitation is to help you do the same: transform your life through transforming your relationship with yourself.
my values.
In a world filled with systemic oppression and disconnection, we must dismantle these systems both internally and externally. Therapy can be a space to heal within - I believe that this ripples outwards and impacts all we touch.
My practice is anti-racist, non-pathologizing, queer & trans-celebratory, and non-monogamy affirming. I have my own intersecting lived experiences of both privilege and oppression, and I am committed to creating a space where folks can feel safe in bringing their unique identities.
your inner wisdom.
I’m not the expert—you are. You know the experiences that made you who you are today; the emotions, sensations, and thoughts that fill your mind, soul, and body. I’m here as a partner in this process, bringing my lived experiences, training, and background in supporting people from diverse identities to help you make the changes you seek in your life.
cultivating relationship.
I am here to get to know all of you—not just the easy, charming, or 'good' parts, but also the insecurities, the inner critics, the self-saboteurs. I truly believe that each part is trying to help. When we get curious, we can discover their intentions, unlocking pain points and opening pathways to meet underlying needs. This process fosters greater awareness, integration, and harmony within.
collective liberation.
Grounding internal experiences in the external world is essential in healing. Many of our internal wounds are inflicted by systemic oppression. And, we have often internalized - and maybe even recreated - these patterns inside ourselves and our relationships. Therapy with me integrates healing from these impacts alongside your personal healing and growth.