about jenn
welcome.
I believe everything is in process and evolving, including my self, my life, the world, and my practice.
Some identities I carry: 2nd generation Chinese American woman, Bay Area native, highly sensitive empath, lifelong learner, auntie, dancer, psychonaut, free spirit.
I know firsthand how messy and hard it is to be human. I know what it's like to feel small and alone in my pain. Stuck in anxiety and fear, heavy with depression and shame, or boiling over in anger and rage. I know what it's like to feel unsafe and contracted in my body, lost and heartbroken yet again.
On my journey to understand and alleviate my suffering from a young age, I’ve encountered over the years deep wisdom and care from so many skilled teachers, healers, and allies (in so many forms!). I’ve learned how to grieve and surrender to my vulnerability, how to see and value my self worth, how to climb through shadow and darkness, and into the light, love, and magic in life.
In a dominant culture that seeks to control and extract, trusting myself and my non-linear healing and growth process is daily practice. The practice of self trust and listening deeply to inner guidance is at the heart of what I hope to support for my clients.
my path
I hold a CA License as a Marriage and Family Therapist, BA in Social Welfare and Psychology from University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Sonoma State University. I’ve supported hundreds of children, adults, and families over almost 2 decades of experience in education, social services, and counseling work in a variety of settings.
My healing work is also deeply influenced by time spent in nature, my personal experiences navigating and healing anxiety, depression, and complex trauma since childhood, Vipassana meditation and Buddhist philosophy, embodied movement and conscious dance, Black and intersectional feminist thought, Traditional Chinese Medicine, entheogenic/plant medicine ceremony, solo travel, spiritual practices, and energy healing. Dance is one of my greatest joys and a central outlet through which I’ve learned to more fully embody presence, self trust, and personal power.
I hold gratitude and daily intention to be in reverent relationship to the land that I am on, which is currently unceded, ancestral land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people who, for hundreds of generations, have belonged to and stewarded the land that is also known as Oakland, CA. I am nourished by walks in the woods and time near or in water. I also hold gratitude for a sacred connection to the island and waters of Hawai’i, who have taught me profound lessons on beauty, pleasure, magic, destruction, and rebirth.
summary of professional training
• Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Welfare (double major), University of California, Berkeley
• Master’s degree in Counseling (Clinical Mental Health), Sonoma State University
• 2-Year Training Program in Feminist Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Women’s Therapy Center in Berkeley
• 6-Month Intensive Family Therapy Mirror Seminar with an Emphasis on Attachment, Assessment, and Trauma with Pamela Parkinson, Bay Area Family Institute of Training
• Extensive training and experience in Expressive Arts and Somatic/Embodied Awareness modalities, including workshops on mindfulness, Somatic Abolitionism with Resmaa Menakem, Hakomi, Integral Somatic Psychology, Somatic Experiencing, Mindful Schools Curriculum
• Therapy in Motion Lab, Open Floor International
• Outreach Movement Facilitation Training with Sylvie Minot, Syzygy Dance Project
• Art & Social Change Secrets of Interplay
• Shamanism For Healers, Helpers & Humans Course and 1:1 personal and professional ongoing mentorship with Anna Dorian at The Dreaming Otter
• Personal Vipassana meditation and embodied awareness (mindfulness) practice, participant in 10 silent meditation retreats since 2008
• Personal embodied movement and dance practices through qigong, yoga, conscious dance: Ecstatic Dance, Movement Liberation for BIPOC workshops, Soul Motion, 5Rhythms, Open Floor, Contact Improv
• Training in Acupressure and Eastern Bodywork (250 hours), Reiki 1 & 2, VortexHealing