Getting Unstuck Together.
Family Therapy for Culturally Diverse Families in Colorado and Florida
Breaking Cycles of Avoidance and Misunderstanding
For many families from culturally diverse backgrounds, mental health isn’t openly discussed and conflict is often swept under the rug and left unresolved. Struggles become buried under expectations and duties, guilt, or “just pushing through” for the sake of maintaining harmony or keeping the peace. But when trauma or stigmatized topics related to mental health or substance abuse enters the picture, these patterns can keep us stuck in cycles of disconnection and pain that end up impacting our capacity for closeness and connection in the long run.
Family therapy offers a space to heal generational wounds, improve understanding, and rebuild trust and connection.
When is it Time for Family Therapy?
You and your family member struggle to understand each other.
Cultural values (e.g., collectivism, family honor and duty, emotional self-control) feel like barriers instead of strengths.
Substance use, trauma, or mental health challenges have created distance.
It feels like the more you try to pull your family member close, the more they push you away.
Whenever you try to have a conversation about a difficult topic (or sometimes even easy topics), it some how almost always ends up in a fight.
You want to parent differently but feel stuck in old patterns.
There’s tension, but no one knows how to talk about it.
How Can Family Therapy Help?
I specialize in working with Asian American, NHPI, and other BIPOC families who feel caught between generations, cultures, and expectations. Therapy isn’t about assigning blame or figuring out who is doing what wrong—it’s about understanding each other better and breaking unhelpful cycles in a way that respects the family’s and each individual’s values.
My approach is person-centered and strengths-based at it’s core. I meet each family where they’re at and work collaboratively to determine what changes they want to make as a family system.
My therapeutic approach to family therapy is an integration of the following evidence-based treatment modalities:
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Family relationships are often shaped by unspoken patterns, past experiences, and generational dynamics that influence how we connect with one another. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy helps families explore the deeper, often unconscious forces driving conflict, emotional distance, and misunderstandings.
In family therapy, psychodynamic work helps by:
Uncovering Root Causes of Conflict – Many family struggles are tied to unresolved emotions, past wounds, or generational trauma. Psychodynamic therapy helps family members recognize how past experiences shape their present interactions.
Breaking Repetitive Cycles – Families often repeat patterns across generations—whether it’s avoidance, control, or emotional suppression. This approach helps identify and disrupt these cycles so they no longer dictate relationships.
Exploring Unspoken Feelings – Unmet needs, resentment, and hidden emotions often drive family tensions. Psychodynamic therapy creates space for these emotions to surface in a safe and constructive way.
Strengthening Emotional Awareness – Family members gain insight into how their emotions and experiences influence their behaviors, leading to deeper understanding and healthier connections.
By bringing unconscious patterns into awareness, psychodynamic family therapy helps families move from conflict to emotional clarity, connection, and healing.
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Family conflicts often arise when emotions are avoided, misunderstood, or suppressed—especially in cultures where open emotional expression is discouraged. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps families shift from resisting difficult emotions to embracing them with openness and compassion.
In family therapy, ACT supports healing by:
Encouraging Emotional Acceptance – Instead of avoiding tough emotions or sweeping issues under the rug, family members learn to acknowledge their feelings and each other’s experiences without judgment.
Breaking Unhelpful Patterns – Many families fall into cycles of blame, criticism, or silence. ACT helps families recognize these patterns and shift toward more supportive, values-driven communication.
Fostering Individual and Collective Growth – ACT teaches each family member to identify their personal and shared values, helping them commit to actions that strengthen family bonds rather than reinforce conflict.
Building Psychological Flexibility – Families learn to respond to stress and conflict with flexibility rather than reactivity, making it easier to navigate differences and misunderstandings.
With an ACT-based approach, family therapy becomes less about "fixing problems" and more about creating a family culture of understanding, resilience, and connection.
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At the heart of every family struggle is a longing for connection—even when it appears as anger, withdrawal, or tension. Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) helps families repair emotional bonds by fostering trust, vulnerability, and understanding.
EFFT supports healing by:
Identifying Negative Interaction Patterns – Families often get stuck in cycles of blame, criticism, or avoidance. EFFT helps uncover these patterns and create new ways of relating.
Deepening Emotional Connection – Instead of focusing only on surface-level conflicts, EFFT works to rebuild trust and emotional safety between family members.
Helping Family Members Express Needs – Many conflicts stem from unspoken emotional needs—such as the desire to feel seen, heard, or valued. EFFT helps family members communicate these needs openly.
Fostering Repair and Security – Whether healing past hurts or building stronger relationships, EFFT helps families create a sense of emotional security, where each member feels safe expressing themselves.
By focusing on emotional bonds rather than just behaviors and communication, EFFT helps families heal from disconnection and strengthen their relationships with greater empathy and trust.
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For many families of color, therapy isn’t just about resolving conflict—it’s about navigating the complex intersections of culture, identity, and generational expectations. Multicultural Therapy creates space to honor each person’s lived experiences while addressing the unique challenges of growing up in a bicultural or intergenerational family system.
This approach helps by:
Acknowledging Cultural Stigma Around Mental Health – Many BIPOC families struggle with silence around emotions, pressure to “push through,” or fear of bringing shame. Therapy helps break these barriers in a way that respects cultural values.
Navigating Intergenerational and Bicultural Conflicts – Whether it’s differing beliefs about parenting, emotional expression, or success, multicultural therapy helps families bridge the gap between generations while validating each perspective.
Recognizing the Impact of Racism and Systemic Stress – Family struggles don’t happen in isolation. Therapy acknowledges how racial trauma, discrimination, and cultural expectations shape mental health and family dynamics.
Honoring Collective Values While Supporting Individual Identity – Many families of color emphasize collectivism, duty, and respect—but these values can sometimes conflict with personal growth. Therapy helps families balance cultural values with individual well-being.
Multicultural therapy isn’t about choosing between cultures—it’s about integrating identities, healing intergenerational wounds, and strengthening family relationships in a way that aligns with your values.
Areas of Specialty
Stuff they say you’re not supposed to talk about
— but we will
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Trauma can shape the way you think, feel, and relate to others, even when you don’t realize it. For teens and young adults, it might show up as emotional overwhelm, disconnection, people-pleasing, shutting down, or self-sabotage. Sometimes, it doesn’t look like trauma at all—it just feels like something’s always “off.”
For folks from marginalized communities, trauma is often layered with systemic injustice, cultural silence, and intergenerational pain. That kind of trauma doesn’t just live in your past; it lives in your body, your relationships, your sense of safety.
In therapy, we work gently and intentionally to untangle this. Through body-based and emotionally focused approaches, we create space to process what happened, restore a sense of safety, and build resilience in a way that honors your culture, your story, and your pace.
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Substance use doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For many teens and young adults, especially those navigating trauma, family pressure, cultural stigma, or mental health challenges, it can become a way to cope with pain, numb out, or feel in control.
If you come from a family or culture where addiction is seen as a moral failing, not a mental health issue, asking for help can feel almost impossible. Shame, secrecy, and fear of judgment can keep the cycle going while making everyone feel even more alone.
In therapy, we don’t just focus on the substance. We look at what’s underneath it and work together to build healthier ways of coping. Whether you're struggling yourself or supporting someone who is, we'll explore tools that help you reduce harm, stay grounded, and take steps toward healing that actually sticks.
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When it feels like your worth depends on never messing up, being human stops feeling like an option. And when you grew up being the responsible one, the high achiever, the one who couldn’t afford to fall apart — perfectionism can slide in quietly and take over fast.
For many high-performing teens and young adults, especially in families where expectations are high and mistakes feel like they come with real consequences, perfectionism becomes more than “trying your best.” It turns into a survival strategy. You’re trying to avoid judgment, avoid disappointing your family, avoid losing the image of who everyone thinks you are. It can feel like one wrong move could unravel everything you’ve worked for.
In therapy, we slow the system down so you don’t have to keep white-knuckling your way through life. You’ll learn how to regulate your nervous system, work through the memories and messages that taught you perfection was the only safe option, and build a healthier relationship with pressure. Not by lowering your standards or losing your ambition — but by untangling the fear underneath it so you can perform, rest, and grow without the constant threat of “not enough.”
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When you’ve been performing under pressure for so long, whether its on the field, on the stage, in school, or under the weight of your family’s expectations, your body learns to stay on high alert. Mistakes can feel bigger than they are. Setbacks can hit harder. And the moments where you’re supposed to shine can start to feel like threats instead of opportunities.
For many teens and young adults, especially athletes and high performers of color carrying cultural pressures, injuries, harsh coaching, public mistakes, or even one moment can leave an imprint. Your mind knows you’re capable, but your body freezes, overthinks, or shuts down when it matters most. Suddenly you’re performing great in practice but falling apart in high-stakes moments, or you’re stuck in a plateau and can’t figure out why.
In therapy, we make space for the parts of you that still feel scared, pressured, or wounded. You’ll learn how to work with your nervous system instead of against it, to reset after mistakes, process the experiences that got stuck in your body, and rebuild your trust in yourself. Not by pushing harder, but by healing the injuries underneath the surface so you can show up with clarity, confidence, and coherence when it counts.
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If you’ve ever been told you’re lazy, too sensitive, or too much, you might have learned to hide how bad things really feel. Depression and anxiety in young people of color often don’t look like what people expect. They might show up as anger, fighting, lashing out, doing drugs, partying too much, overworking, over-planning, or shutting down completely. Sometimes it gets labeled as “disrespectful,” “lazy,” “out of control,” “uptight” or “extra”—but underneath, it’s pain, fear, or pressure no one taught you how to name. They can also show up as burnout, isolation, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or never feeling like you’re “enough.”
In therapy, we slow things down and make space for the feelings you’ve had to hold in. We’ll work on understanding your patterns, building emotional tools, and reconnecting with the parts of you that have been shut out or pushed aside.
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ADHD isn’t just about focus. It’s about having a brain that works differently in a world that wasn’t built for it. For young people of color, especially those in families that value discipline, order, or emotional control, ADHD can be misunderstood as laziness, defiance, or “not trying hard enough.”
You might find yourself zoning out, forgetting things, saying stuff you didn’t mean to, or crashing after bursts of energy. Maybe you overwork to hide it. Maybe you’ve been told you’re “too much” your whole life or started using substances to quiet the noise or feel “normal.”
In therapy, we explore how your brain works without labeling you or trying to make you fit into a mold. We build tools for focus, time, and emotion regulation but we also work on releasing the shame and creating a new narrative. ADHD support is about more than just executive functioning; it’s about seeing yourself clearly and working with your brain, not against it.
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Growing up between cultures can feel like constantly switching versions of yourself: what’s expected at home vs. what’s expected out in the world. For teens and young adults of color, especially those from immigrant families, this constant code-switching can lead to deep confusion, isolation, loneliness, and pressure to be everything for everyone.
You might struggle with feeling “not enough” in any space or carry guilt for wanting something different than what your family imagined for you. On top of that, the impact of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, or gender-based discrimination can make it even harder to feel safe, seen, or worthy.
In therapy, we create space to unpack all of this: cultural identity, family expectations, intergenerational conflict, and systemic stress. You’ll have room to process what’s been passed down to you, explore who you are, and build a more grounded, confident relationship with your story.
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How we learn to connect and protect ourselves often starts in our early relationships. If you grew up with emotional distance, chaos, or pressure to hold it together instead of express yourself, it makes sense if you struggle to trust people, open up, or feel safe being vulnerable and close to others.
Attachment wounds don’t always look like fear. They can show up as pushing people away, getting “too close too fast,” emotional shutdowns, or constantly fearing you’re ‘too much’ or ‘not enough.’ Sometimes, relationships feel overwhelming. Other times, they feel impossible.
In therapy, we explore those patterns with care and curiosity. You’ll learn how your early experiences shaped the way you relate to others, and how to build safer, more connected relationships starting with the one you have with yourself.
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Supporting a teen through substance use is hard, especially when no one talks about it and parents who have not gone through it just don’t understand. People might make you feel like you’re a “bad” parent, like you’re doing something wrong, when in reality, you’re doing everything you can, often in silence, and often alone.
Parents often carry guilt, shame, or fear of being judged, especially in families or cultures where mental health and addiction are taboo. It can feel like you’re failing, even when you’re trying your hardest to hold it all together.
Parent coaching creates a space where you don’t have to have all the answers. Together, we’ll look at what’s underneath your teen’s struggles, such as trauma, anxiety, peer pressure, or emotional overwhelm, and explore how you can support their healing without losing yourself in the process.
You’ll learn tools to reduce conflict, rebuild trust, and communicate in ways that actually land. We’ll also talk about how to care for you because your stress, grief, trauma, and fear deserve attention too. You don’t have to do this alone, and you don’t have to do it perfectly to make a difference. You just have to stay in the room and we’ll figure it out together.