Dr. Dowon Choi

I'm a licensed psychologist, an assistant professor at a public university, and — in an earlier life — a musician who led a band around Hongdae in Seoul. I was born and raised in Korea and have since lived and worked across the U.S. and in Vietnam, so I know the experience of living between cultures from the inside.

I work with adults, adolescents, and children, in English and Korean, on ADHD and executive functioning; anxiety, stress, and depression; giftedness, creativity, and high performance (including performers and creative professionals); and bicultural and Korean-American identity, acculturation, and family dynamics across generations. I also see couples and families.

My doctorate is from one of the very few APA-accredited Combined (Counseling & School Psychology) programs in North America, and I've researched creativity and giftedness for more than ten years. Most of my work is by telehealth.

I draw on both Eastern and Western perspectives, just like my bicultural identity. My primary intervention approaches are mindfulness, DBT, ACT, and CBT. I often provide evidence-based Eastern philosophy-based strategies that increase my clients' own understanding of healing mechanisms in clinical science; I don't just deliver techniques; I bring the root philosophy and a real understanding of how the mind works, and we work with emotion and the body, not only behavior.

I'm engaged, not neutral. I think alongside you and stay genuinely invested in how your life is unfolding. I offer a careful, warm space to understand yourself and grow real potential in your own areas.

"To truly understand someone means being able to explain things from their perspective; to interpret why they acted as they did; to borrow their eyes and see the world anew; to feel, if only for a moment, what stirs in their heart. And in that borrowed light, I come to know myself more deeply — and carry that realization into my own life."

Our first session is an intake. I'll get to know your history, what brought you here now, and the patterns you'd like to change, and we'll sketch a plan together. It's a conversation, not an interrogation; you set the pace, and there's nothing to prepare beyond showing up.

From there, sessions are regular and collaborative. My role, as I see it, is to walk alongside you: to help you author your own life story and make meaning by tapping into the healing potential already within you. The aim is that you leave calmer, clearer about the patterns behind old struggles, and firmly in the driver's seat of your own life.