Healing and growth are not linear processes. Often, before we can become who we’re meant to be, we first need to unlearn and understand who we’ve been. Erica believes that being an effective counselor or coach means developing a personalized and individualized approach for each client. By combining elements of clinical therapy and life coaching, Erica offers her clients an extra layer of support and guidance along their journeys.
Erica acknowledges the amount courage and strength it takes to seek outside support. She wants her clients to know that therapy doesn’t necessarily have to be a deep-dive into the most vulnerable parts of themselves. Sometimes counseling and coaching simply looks like holding space for people to feel safe, complete, and accepted. Sometimes people simply need someone to listen to them without the fear judgment or fear of being a burden. Sometimes it’s beneficial to have an outside, subjective, professional sounding board.
Erica has been committed to her personal growth and development for over a decade. Most of this work has involved unlearning and healing the parts of herself that she’s been conditioned to feel shame and guilt around. It is her hope and intention that by being vulnerable and transparent around her own journey, her clients feel safe to do the same.
Born in China and raised in Baltimore, MD, Erica was adopted into a multiracial and multicultural family when she was just an infant. This life experience has allowed her to explore the concepts of identity, relationships, and belonging from a very young age. One of Erica’s greatest strengths is her ability to create spaces where her clients feel safe – safe to feel their feelings, safe to express their emotions, safe to be themselves, and safety within their bodies. Her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion has allowed her to work with populations all over the country, from Baltimore, Trenton, Princeton, Commerce City, and Denver. She also has international experience working a semester abroad in Twickenham, England.
Erica has extensive experience in helping clients work through depression, anxiety, trauma, anger, self-harming behaviors, family issues, and relationships. She approaches her work through a trauma-informed and anti-racist lens, and is also an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist.
For those who are open to it, Erica may bring spiritual and energetic approaches into session. For example, while working with couples and acknowledging that gender is a spectrum, she explores the divine masculine and feminine energies present in the relationship. Examining the polarities present within a relationship creates more opportunity to build intimacy, trust, and vulnerability within partners. Erica is also passionate about exploring the “shadow” self, or the unconscious negative and unhealthy parts of ourselves that we try repress or separate ourselves from, which lead to explosive behaviors, anxiety, and depression. By supporting her clients in meeting their shadow self with empathy and compassion, they are able to understand why it exists, what it needs, and how to tame it. Shadow work is an advanced concept and is not for everybody.