Mai nguyen

I’m a queer, 1.5-generation Vietnamese American, and I understand what it can feel like to live between worlds: cultures, expectations, and the person you were raised to be versus the person you’re becoming. I believe everyone deserves the space to explore their autonomy, hopes, and dreams without having to minimize or explain away the parts of themselves that make them who they are.

I work with adolescents ages 13 and older, People of the Global Majority, LGBTQIA+ individuals, neurodivergent clients, and couples of all kinds who are looking to better understand one another and reconnect. Using Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), I help couples move beyond recurring arguments to explore the underlying emotions, needs, and longings that often go unspoken. Much of my work also centers on people-pleasing, anxiety, intergenerational dynamics, and navigating the tension between family or societal expectations and a more authentic sense of self.

I especially enjoy working with neurodivergent clients. The world wasn’t built with all of us in mind, and I’m less interested in helping you fit into someone else’s definition of “normal” than in supporting you in finding the accommodations, both internal and external, that allow you to live in ways that feel sustainable, affirming, and true to who you are.

My approach integrates Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy within a trauma-informed framework. I’m interested in how our histories shape the ways we move through the world, relate to others, and understand ourselves, including the intergenerational experiences and inherited expectations we may carry. My work also embraces politicized healing: recognizing how systems of oppression can shape our relationships with ourselves, our boundaries, and our sense of worth.

To me, healing is a process of understanding identity within its broader historical, cultural, and relational context. It means exploring who you are, who you’ve had to become to navigate the world around you, and who you want to be moving forward. You don’t have to have it all figured out before starting therapy. Life comes with plenty of hard and complicated moments, and I’d be glad to walk alongside you through them, meeting you where you are with curiosity, compassion, and respect for the person you are and the person you’re becoming.