As an Early Start Specialist, I enjoy talking to patients about their pregnancy, life plans, and relationships. It feels very special to be a part of women’s prenatal care team and contributing to the birth of a healthy baby. My conceptualization of psychological distress and treatment considers biopsychosocial determinants. During assessment sessions, my goal is to understand where my patients come from, what they are dealing with, and where they want to go or make changes. This may include connecting patients to resources, teaching stress management tools, or providing education about healthy lifestyle during pregnancy. Other times, I’m just listening to my patients’ struggles and recognizing they’re doing their best given the challenges they face from many fronts. I’m a strong believer of the power of thoughts and the research and tools from the realm of positive psychology. Journaling, positive thinking, cognitive restructuring, and mindfulness are typical interventions in my treatment.
I made my way to Health Psychology after training and education in neuropsychology and psychological testing and assessment. I spent several years providing neuropsychological and psychological assessments to youth, capacity evaluations in skilled nursing facilities, disability evaluations for the City and County of San Francisco, and presurgical assessments. I love learning about the brain and body. My current areas of clinical interest are perinatal mental health, neuropsychological unpinning of addiction, and bariatric psychology.
I joined Kaiser Permanente Psychiatry, Antioch, in 2017, and started my position in Early Start in the fall of the same year.
I am lucky to call myself a Bay Area native! My parents are from Taiwan and settled here to start a family and run a business. I never left the Bay Area and spent childhood summers in Taiwan with relatives. I’m married with three energetic, loud, and curious children. I like taking them on beautiful scenic hikes, National Parks, ski/snowboarding trips, and other travel adventures. They’re not that into hiking but will put up with it. I believe in having a balanced life with equal parts of joy/fun, physical activity, meaningful work, and social connection. I enjoy baking, knitting, reading historical novels, streaming historical period TV shows, crafting with my kids, parties with family and friends, running, practicing hot yoga and reformer Pilates, and snowboarding. Life is busy but I do my best to be present in the moment whether it’s listening and talking to patients or joining in my kids’ activities.
I earned my BA in Psychology at UC Berkeley and completed my doctoral education at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA (now known as National University). My internship and post-doctoral fellowship were at Portia Bell Hume Center, a community-based mental health clinic. I completed an advanced fellowship in Health Psychology at California Pacific Medical Center in 2016. I’ve been a licensed psychologist since 2010 and a certified American Association of Bariatric Counselor since 2024.