All are
welcomed hereVirtual sessions in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin for adults who are exhausted from holding it all togetherTherapy in New York for AAPI
& High-Achievers
Therapy in New York for AAPI and high-achieving professionals across New York City, including Manhattan (Midtown, the Upper East Side, and Chelsea), Brooklyn (Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Flatbush), Queens (Flushing, Astoria, and Long Island City), as well as Staten Island and Westchester County
You might look like you have it together on the outside, but internally, something feels off. Your mind is always on, the pressure doesn’t really let up, and even when things are going well, it’s hard to fully settle into it.
I offer therapy across New York for AAPI clients and high-achieving adults who are navigating anxiety, overthinking, and the kind of internal pressure that’s hard to explain to others but exhausting to carry on your own.
Does this feel familiar?
You're successful by every measure that matters in this city, and somehow it still doesn't feel like enough
The pace never stops, and neither does your mind -- even when you're exhausted, you can't seem to slow down
You're the one everyone else leans on, but there's no one checking in on you
You've been told to "set boundaries" and "practice self-care" but nobody talks about why it's so hard to actually do that
You want a therapist who understands the pressure of this city and the cultural weight you carry alongside it.
I see you, and I’m glad you’re here.
Therapy with me is a place where you can finally exhale.
Together, we’ll:
Slow down enough to figure out what's actually driving the pressure, not just manage it
Untangle your sense of worth from what you produce, achieve, or provide for others
Learn to rest without the guilt that you should be doing something more
Build a life that feels like yours, not just one that looks good from the outside
Hi, I’m Mandy,
your AAPI Therapist in NYC
I'm an Asian psychotherapist and board-certified music therapist based in New York City. I was born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, and have built my life and practice here in New York. As an immigrant and former international student, I know what it's like to move between cultural worlds, to absorb expectations that were never spoken aloud, and to feel the quiet weight of not quite belonging anywhere fully.
That experience shapes how I work. I'm a firm believer that we come to know ourselves through relationships: what we've experienced, witnessed, and learned in connection with others. Anxiety, burnout, and overextending ourselves often develop in these spaces too, shaped by moments of rupture, misattunement, or unmet needs. When that happens, repair often needs to be felt in relationship, too.
I offer sessions in English, Cantonese, and conversational Mandarin, because some things don't translate cleanly, and you shouldn't have to force them to.
Out of All the Therapists in New York, Why Should You Work with Me?
Finding a therapist in New York isn't hard. but finding one who actually understands what you're carrying can be.
A lot of my clients come in already self-aware. They've read the books, listened to the podcasts, and can explain exactly why they feel the way they do. But insight alone hasn't been enough to change the pattern.
Here's why: most high-achievers are really good at living from the neck up:
Analyzing instead of feeling
Problem-solving instead of processing
Pushing through instead of pausing
And that works, until it doesn't. Because the anxiety, the tension, the emotional patterns that keep replaying, those don't live in your thoughts.
They live in your body.
THAT’S WHY I WORK DIFFERENTLY
Rather than starting with what you think and working down, we start with what your body is already holding and work from there. It's called a bottom-up approach, and for people who've spent years trying to think their way out of how they feel, it's often the missing piece.
Our work together is integrated, which means:
Talk therapy to make sense of your story
EMDR to process what's still stuck
Music and somatic awareness to reconnect with what your body knows
Together, these create something more than the sum of their parts: a space where your whole self gets to show up, not just the parts you've already figured out.
Who I Work with Across New York
High-achieving adults in medicine, law, finance, consulting, or tech who are exceptional at their jobs but running on empty outside of them
People who feel the pull between the life their family imagined for them and the one they're actually trying to build
Those carrying intergenerational trauma or family dynamics that were never talked about openly
AAPI professionals who grew up translating, not just language but expectations, emotions, and versions of yourself depending on who was in the room
Highly sensitive or self-aware people who are ready to go deeper than talk therapy alone
New Yorkers feeling the particular pressure of this city, where everyone around you seems to be thriving
If any of this sounds like you,
you're probably someone who gives more than you receive, feels more than you show,
and expects more from yourself than you'd ever ask of anyone else.
You've spent your life trying to be enough for everyone else.
Now it's time to be enough for you.
How Anxiety Shows Up for High-Achievers in New York
Anxiety is the most common mental health concern among adults in the United States, affecting nearly 1 in 5 people each year. Yet many people who struggle with it never seek support, often because their anxiety doesn't look the way they expect it to. Most people picture anxiety as visible panic or constant nervousness. But for high-achieving adults, it often looks like something else entirely.
This might look like:
chronic overthinking and difficulty quieting your mind
perfectionism that never quite feels satisfied
rumination, replaying situations long after they've passed
high-functioning anxiety that keeps you productive on the outside while you're running on empty inside
people-pleasing and difficulty knowing what you actually want
a constant low-level sense that something is wrong, even when life looks fine on paper
If you want to dive deeper, this post breaks down the signs of high-functioning anxiety and why it so often goes unrecognized.
Why Anxiety Hits Different When You Live in New York
In a city like New York, that can look especially familiar. Living here often means moving fast and carrying more than most people see. Many of the people I see coming in for therapy in New York are high-achieving professionals who appear composed on the outside but internally feel stretched thin by constant pressure, relentless overthinking, and a quiet but persistent belief that they should be able to handle all of it on their own. The pace of the city, demanding careers, and the unspoken pressure to keep up make it easy to push past your own limits without even realizing it.
You might find yourself:
replaying conversations long after they've ended
finding it hard to enjoy rest without feeling like you should be doing something
struggling to hold boundaries at work or in relationships
constantly second-guessing yourself
waking up exhausted even though you had a “self-care” day
dreading your inbox before you've even opened it
saying yes when you mean no, then resenting yourself for it
feeling relief when plans get cancelled, followed by guilt for feeling that way
How Therapy in New York Can Help
Anxiety often develops for good reasons. Many of the patterns that bring people to therapy, like overthinking, people-pleasing, and pushing yourself too hard, began as ways of adapting to pressure, expectations, or environments where you needed to stay alert and capable. In anxiety therapy, we start by getting curious about those patterns rather than trying to eliminate them.
Together we explore:
what your anxiety might be trying to protect
how it shows up in your thoughts and body
what experiences may have shaped it over time
This isn't about fixing you. It's about understanding yourself more fully so that anxiety no longer has to run the show.
A Personalized Approach to Anxiety Treatment
As an anxiety therapist in New York, I integrate EMDR, somatic therapy, and parts-informed work to help clients understand the deeper patterns behind anxiety.
EMDR therapy can be particularly helpful for anxiety rooted in past experiences, helping the brain reprocess what it has been holding onto
Somatic therapy addresses how anxiety lives in the nervous system and the body, not just in your thoughts
Parts-informed work helps us understand the different parts that exist within you, and the roles they play in your everyday life
As a board-certified music therapist, I also sometimes incorporate music as another doorway into emotional processing. Music can offer access to feelings that are hard to put into words, helping the nervous system settle and allowing deeper insight to emerge in ways that traditional talk therapy alone may not reach.
What Can I Expect from Therapy in New York?
With the right support, things can genuinely change.
This work can help you build:
more flexibility in how you respond to stress
greater self-trust and confidence in your own instincts
the ability to rest without guilt or the feeling that you should be doing something else
a quieter inner critic and more self-compassion day to day
Many people find that as they understand their anxiety more deeply, it begins to take up less space.
You've probably been managing this for a long time. If you're curious about what it might feel like to finally put it down, I'd love to hear from you.
Specializations
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Therapy for Anxiety & Overthinking
You've built a life that looks great on paper, and yet the anxiety, the self-doubt, the exhaustion of being everything to everyone, hasn't gone away. I work with high-achievers and over-functioners who are looking for anxiety therapy in NYC, and are ready to understand what's really driving the pressure, not just manage it, and start living in a way that finally feels like theirs.
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Relationship Therapy
Whether you're caught in the same cycles, feeling distant from your partner, or trying to make sense of your patterns in dating, we get curious about what's really going on beneath the surface. Together, we explore how your past shaped the way you love, and practice new ways of showing up that feel more like you. -
Pregnancy & Postpartum Therapy
Becoming a parent brings profound joy and profound upheaval, and not every part of that gets to be spoken out loud.
I offer a warm, nonjudgmental space for new and expecting mothers navigating anxiety, depression, identity shifts, and the emotional complexity of this season, including the layered pressures that come with cultural expectations. -
Healing from Trauma and PTSD with EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a research-backed approach that helps your brain finally process what it's been holding, so your body can stop bracing for a threat that has already passed. We build safety first, then work gently through the memories and beliefs keeping you stuck, at a pace that always stays in your control.
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Therapy for AAPI & Immigrants
There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes with navigating spaces that weren't built with you in mind. I offer a warm, culturally attuned space where you don't have to explain yourself or earn your place. We work together to separate the expectations you grew up carrying from the life you actually want, and find an identity that genuinely feels like home.
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Music Therapy
Music therapy brings sound into the therapeutic process as a way to access, express, and process emotions that words can't always reach. No musical background needed: if music has ever made you feel something, you already have everything you need to begin.
What People Are Saying
Why Virtual Therapy is Important in New York
In a city that rewards relentless productivity, slowing down can feel like falling behind. If you're a high-achieving professional in New York, you probably know how to push through, optimize, and keep moving, and that's exactly why the anxiety, the burnout, and the quiet feeling that something is off can go unaddressed for so long. It doesn't fit the pace.
Virtual therapy means you can show up for yourself on your schedule, without adding a commute to an already packed day. No waiting rooms, no travel time. Just a dedicated hour that's entirely yours.
I work with adults across New York City and the state, including professionals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Flushing, Astoria, and the Hudson Valley. Many of my clients are first or second-generation immigrants and AAPI professionals navigating the particular pressure of high-achieving families alongside demanding careers in one of the most competitive cities in the world. If you're navigating cultural identity, intergenerational pressure, or the weight of being the first in your family to ask for help, you can read more about that work here.
If you’ve read this far, a part of you wants change . You don’t need to have it all the right words,
all you need is a curiosity to turn inwards.
Come as you are, and we’ll figure the rest out together.
Reach out &
Schedule a Consultation Call Today