I’m Vy (she/her).

Vy (pronounced VEE) is my birth name, a name I say with pride and dignity — it hasn’t always been the name I’ve been known by due to forced assimilation, but it’s a name I’ve chosen to return to with intention and care — an all too common experience among immigrants.

My experience as a first generation immigrant and refugee from Vietnam permeates through my work as a therapist. Even though I grew up in diaspora, the trauma of displacement, war, loss of identity/community/culture has shaped my upbringing. My younger self navigated the stigma and shame of seeking help in an immigrant household in isolation, and I am so grateful for her courage and perseverance. In many ways therapy saved my life, and I am extremely invested in this work.

Tập (pronounced like “thupp”) means “to practice” in Vietnamese. I believe therapy is an opportunity to practice how to reflect, explore, process, learn, adapt, and grow our self-compassion. It is also an opportunity to challenge yourself. How will what you practice in therapy carry out in your daily life? What does healing in relationship to others—your friends, your family, your partner(s), your work, your activism—look like?