Yen Liao

You might be the person everyone counts on, the one who holds it together while feeling on edge underneath. Maybe you grew up walking on eggshells, carrying family expectations that were never really yours, and now even setting a small boundary sends your anxiety spiking. I work with people untangling exactly that: old family wounds, relational trauma, and the survival patterns that once protected you but now keep you stuck. I pay attention to what's happening in your nervous system, not just your story, so we can work with your body instead of against it. I know how much it matters to be met in the full context of who you are: your culture, your goals, your history. You don't have to have the right words yet. If any of this feels familiar, you're in the right place.

I start from the belief that your anxiety makes sense — it's your nervous system doing its best to protect you with the tools it learned a long time ago. In our sessions, that belief turns into practice: using a trauma-focused lens, we'll notice how past experiences still live in your body today. Through an attachment-based approach, we'll explore the relational patterns you learned early and how they show up in your life now. With cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we'll catch the thought loops that spike your anxiety and practice steadier ways of responding, including concrete skills for riding intense emotions without shutting down or spiraling. Drawing on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), we'll practice making room for difficult feelings instead of battling them, so you can move toward the life you want even when anxiety comes along. And with solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), we'll notice what's already working and build from there.

Your first session is a relaxed video conversation and it's completely normal to feel nervous going into it. There's no test to pass and nothing to perform. We'll start with what's bringing you in right now and whatever feels most alive for you; I'll ask thoughtful questions about your history, your relationships, and the patterns you've noticed, but you set the pace and only share what feels okay. I'll share my initial impressions of what's driving things and how we might work on them together, and you'll leave with a clearer sense of direction plus at least one concrete takeaway. You're deciding whether I'm the right fit just as much as I'm learning how to help.