About Sayun

As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California (MFC 48357) and Certified EMDR and IFS therapist, I specialize in holistic psychotherapy for adult individuals. Prior to working in private practice, I provided therapy to adults, families and at-risk youth in agencies, public schools, women’s shelters, and community-based settings.

My interest in psychology and human behavior evolved from growing up in and being from both eastern and western cultures and a desire to make meaning from contradiction, multiplicity, trauma and loss. I was born in Vietnam during the Vietnam War to a New Englander father and an indigenous  Taiwanese Atayal mother. I was raised in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the United States as a “third culture kid”, and became fluent in Mandarin Chinese as an adult while living in and out of China for a decade. My diverse life experiences inform my ability to embrace complexity and the challenges inherent in change, as well as respond with sensitivity to painful dynamics within individual, family, and wider cultural systems.

In addition to my formal training in counseling psychology and somatic studies, I am a certified yoga instructor, certified infant massage instructor, reiki practitioner, bodyworker, and a long-time practitioner of Vipassana and Shambhala meditation. I’m an approved IFS clinical consultant and am deeply committed to professional development and assist IFS trainings ongoingly. My research focuses on the intersection where neuroscience, mindfulness and compassion meet when working with PTSD, attachment trauma, anxiety, shame, grief, issues of mixed-race identity and cultural bereavement, perinatal and postpartum mental health, and intergenerational trauma.

 

 

CREDENTIALS

Education

John F. Kennedy University, M.A., Counseling (Somatic/Transpersonal) Psychology
Johns Hopkins University, Freeman Fellowship for one year graduate study in Nanjing, China
University of Virginia, B.A., Distinguished Major in East Asian Studies

Training & Certifications

Certified in Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Certified in EMDR | Attachment-focused EMDR with Laurel Parnell, PhD
  Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Developmental Trauma with Pat Ogden, PhD
Maternal Mental Health Certificate from Postpartum Support International (PSI)/2020 Mom
Relational Gestalt Therapy, Weekend Training Program with Pacific Gestalt Institute
Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT) Core Skills
Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT) with Stan Tatkin, PhD
Experiential Hakomi Psychotherapy with Couples with Rob Fisher, LMFT
Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) Level II
Brainspotting with Pie Frey
Voice Dialogue with Judith Tamar Stone
Yin Yoga Training from Spiral Path Yoga

 Professional Affiliations

IFS Institute
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)
International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (ICEEFT)
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)