You might be doing everything “right.” Getting enough sleep. Eating well. Exercising. Taking care of others. Maybe you’re even the one everyone turns to.
But quietly, your body has been trying to get your attention.
You wake up already tired. Your chest feels tight for no reason. You get stomach aches, migraines, or your jaw aches from clenching at night. You’re having trouble concentrating or falling asleep. The doctor says everything looks “normal.”
And yet, you know something doesn’t feel right.
For many of my clients, especially Asian and Asian American women, this is how therapy begins. Not with a mental health diagnosis, but with a body that’s been whispering—or screaming—for relief.
Common Physical Symptoms of Emotional Struggle:
- Chronic fatigue, even after rest
- Tight chest or shallow breathing
- Digestive issues with no clear cause
- Muscle tension or TMJ (jaw pain/clenching)
- Racing heart, sweaty palms, or panic “out of nowhere”
- Trouble sleeping—or waking up in the middle of the night
- Brain fog or difficulty focusing
- Feeling numb, detached, or “not in your body”
- Unexplained aches, joint pain, or inflammatory symptoms like autoimmune flares or skin conditions
These symptoms are real. And they are often signs of a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
❄️ Why So Many of Us Ignore the Signs
In many Asian cultures, mental health is still surrounded by silence or shame. We’re taught to be strong, self-reliant, to put family first, to keep things looking okay from the outside. Feelings? You deal with them privately or not at all.
So when pain builds up inside, the body becomes the messenger.
Many of my clients come to therapy after months or years of seeking medical help for physical symptoms. Only then do they realize that what their bodies are holding is emotional, too. Generational trauma. Childhood emotional neglect. Burnout from caregiving. The pressure to be good, successful, never a burden.
This is not weakness. This is survival.
Your Body Isn’t Broken. It’s Communicating.
Therapy isn’t about erasing your symptoms. It’s about learning to listen to them.
In my work, we use somatic and creative approaches—music, imagery, movement, and nervous system regulation—to gently support the parts of you that have been over-functioning for far too long. I also integrate EMDR, Somatic IFS (Internal Family Systems), and trauma-informed parts work to help your system release what it no longer needs to carry.
You don’t need to explain it all with words. We start with breath. With sound. With presence.
Together, we can help your body unlearn the need to be “on” all the time.
You don’t have to wait until things fall apart. You don’t have to live in a constant state of tension, or numbness, or pain.
You’re allowed to feel better. You’re allowed to come home to yourself.
I offer trauma-informed, somatic, and creative therapy for sensitive, high-achieving women, neurodivergent children, and older adults—especially those from Asian and bicultural families.
I see clients online in New York and in person in Austin.
If this resonates with you, you’re not alone. I’m here when you’re ready.
