Finding a balance of heart, mind and spirit

I grew up on the east coast outside of Boston, went to the midwest for college, and moved to San Francisco after graduating to work for a tech startup. At the time, I valued being analytical, rational and successful, not giving much space for the more intuitive, creative, and vulnerable parts of myself. As time went on, there was something that kept nagging, telling me that something wasn’t working. After trying many things to fix it on my own, I was still left with the feeling that something wasn’t right. It was then I decided to see a therapist , which ended up being a bit of a turning point in my life.

Things weren’t fixed right away, but I began to appreciate my intuition/creativity, became more in touch with my feelings, and developed an interest in mindfulness. These changes led me to leave my job in technology and attend the California Institute of Integral Studies to pursue counseling psychology. The school, much more creatively-oriented and spiritual than I was used to, introduced me to a different way to look at life, one that encouraged a more mindful way to live.

I’ve since come to value the intuitive, creative, and even spiritual aspects of life. However, I still work hard to integrate them with an analytical view of the world. Science is still important to me, so in addition to working as a therapist, I help run studies on mindfulness at UCSF. This combination of intuitive and analytical thinking is what I value most, and it is what most influences the way I work as a therapist. I connect with and help guide people’s experiences using intuition, while also keeping an analytical eye on what’s actually helping them.

In the future, I aim to make an impact on a broader level through the pursuit of a PhD, performing advocacy work, and developing new therapeutic ideas that integrate intuition and science. I will always remember how much I struggled before starting therapy, and I aim to help others that struggle, both on an individual and collective level.