Hi, I’m Shianling.

I’m a licensed clinical psychologist in California and Oregon. I am committed to helping you connect with yourself and others. You are not alone.

It is my purpose to support you in clarifying your own wants and needs, so you can envision and start living a life that is worthwhile, meaningful, and fulfilling. None of us heal alone - you need yourself, your loved ones, and your community by your side, in ways that fit for you. I will help you be flexible, to show up the way you want even in the face of painful situations, thoughts, and feelings. We will approach change with your values, culture, feminism, and social justice as guides.

My story

I have always wanted to be a haven for those who are alone, to lend an empathetic ear and help people toward a life worth living. I’ve worked and learned so I can help you have a better relationship with yourself, practice acceptance, and make meaningful change. I have been helping people change their lives for 19 years, and it has been my privilege. I would love to help you, too.

I’m in awe of the endless ability of people to make change in their lives by connecting to themselves and others. I strive to help people who are experiencing struggles I have also experienced - anxiety, depression, identity shift with parenthood, distress in pregnancy and postpartum, fertility struggles, trauma, acculturation, experience of AANHPI and BIPOC people, shame, and people pleasing.

As a second generation Chinese/Taiwanese-American who felt deeply alone in my experience, it was transformative to find my people and spaces where I could thrive and use what I learned in an enlivened relationship with myself to spread change to the rest of my life. How to let go of emotional pain, while letting it through. Letting myself feel anger, sadness, grief, shame, guilt, without judging myself, putting myself down, making myself small. Daring to take chances, figuring out what I wanted by experimenting, and heading in new directions. Forging new relationships with my family, taking and celebrating the parts of my culture that I love, honor, and connect with, and stepping away from pieces that uphold patriarchy, staying small, and minimizing my wants and needs. That’s what I want for you.

“I’m in awe of the endless ability of people to make change in their lives by connecting to themselves and others. I strive to help people who are experiencing struggles I have also experienced…”

I have worked in a wide range of settings, from forensic psychology to group private practices. I have been privileged to help people from all different backgrounds across a large spectrum of challenges. I have lived change and facilitated change. I take all I have learned from this wealth of humanity, the empathy I’ve cultivated and grown, the ability to be nonjudgmental and curious, the evidence based treatments for various struggles, and I apply it to you. I am passionate about social justice and supporting Asian Americans, BIPOC people, and multicultural folks, and center cultural awareness and intersectionality in therapy. If we could all feel less alone, comfortable in our own skin, liking and even loving ourselves, being more compassionate, having community with our people - what kinds of lives would we lead?

I will be present, open, and nonjudgmental. I will see and hear you, cultivate your ability to see and hear yourself, and foster trust in your own abilities and truths. I will teach you skills for living through and learning from painful thoughts and feelings. You will lead yourself towards your meaningful life, taking action to make it happen.

Treatment
Approaches

  • Clarify your values and build your life in those directions. Find ways to step back from emotional pain and struggle, while choosing to act in ways that matter most to you. Use mindfulness to be here right now, since this is the only moment you can control.

  • Ever said, “Part of me wanted to leave, but part of me wanted to stay?” Learn the different ways you show up inside (the different parts of you), the complexity of your experience in your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Listen in to your wants, needs, and experiences you’ve hidden away. Become a sturdy, compassionate, kind leader for yourself.

  • Prolonged Exposure, Exposure and Response Prevention, Imaginal Exposure, In Vivo Exposure… these treatments are about facing what you fear head on in a manageable way, loosening the stranglehold avoidance has on your life. These treatments are particularly used for PTSD, trauma, anxiety, and OCD - I also apply exposure to help overcome shame. Exposure sounds scary, but we will do it with humor, kindness, and connection to cultivating a new relationship to stressors and to yourself.

  • This therapy teaches amazing skills for mindfulness, getting through hard emotions without making things worse, learning about emotions and what they do for us, taking care of your body to take care of your mind, learning to ask for what you want and need, and learning to say no. I use behavioral analysis to break down the steps that lead to behaviors you’d like to change, so we can figure out what would help most to change repeated patterns. DBT emphasizes nonjudgmentalness and validation of human experience, which is a crucial piece of being understood and motivated to reach for change.

  • This type of therapy explores the connection between our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. I am versed in a number of cognitive behavioral therapy treatments for issues such as depression, anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, PTSD, insomnia, chronic pain, and OCD. I fold them into our work together as needed.

Book a free 20 minute consultation to get started.

“Very little grows on jagged rock. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are. You have been stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender.”

—Rumi