Our practice is dedicated to providing a safe space in which you can share your personal and vicarious experiences with trauma related to race and identity with therapists that believe in cultural humility and respect your lived experience.

What is racial trauma?

Typically, when we use the word trauma, we’re often speaking of a specific, time-limited event or events that cause significant emotional and sometimes physical distress. Racial trauma refers specifically to mental and emotional disturbance resulting directly from experiencing the impact of discrimination and the dehumanization of racism. Race based trauma, whether direct or vicariously experienced, is ongoing and hits at the core of your being - your personhood. There is no question that this type of trauma can be destructive to your sense of identity, your emotional well-being, and even your physical health.

You may be thinking, “This all makes sense, but I’ve never been a victim of a hate crime or anything, what I experience(d) isn’t trauma.”

Identity-based discrimination comes in all shapes and sizes, sometimes it’s readily visible, other times it’s much more subtle and may even be unintentional. “Microaggressions” are a term used for those everyday, errant, off-hand comments or actions that may appear on the surface to be a compliment or a joke but upon closer inspection hold some kind of insult or slight towards a group of people. The word “microaggression” may seem to indicate harmlessness but, in truth, the accumulation of multiple, on-going hurts can have a destructive impact on one’s view of self and sense of safety in one’s environment.

What are the symptoms?

The chronic stress inherent in continuously having to defend your human rights can result in a host of issues including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. You may find yourself avoiding circumstances or settings that you perceive are a threat to your well-being even when doing so inhibits your own interests and ambitions. Tragically, navigating through a world in which discrimination is rampant, whether personal or structural, can result in low self-esteem and a fractured identity.

How can we help?

Honestly, I’m not sure if there’s anything worse than reaching out for help and being disbelieved or dismissed. The pain and injury that is caused by diminishing another’s perceived experience of discrimination, whether due to racism, sexism, ageism, etc. can be as destructive as the act of prejudice itself.

It is a closely held value in our practice to respect and honor your lived experience. We are committed to establishing authentic emotional safety in the therapeutic process so that you can risk vulnerability. With your therapist, you will be able to process through traumatic memories, develop effective coping and self-care strategies, and eventually find healing.

Our founder, Cindy Kim, has the unique perspective of being an Asian therapist in a society where it can feel difficult to access therapeutic care from someone who shares at least some of the same life experiences as a person of color (POC). She brings her understanding of what it means to sit in between two cultures - American and Asian (Korean, in this case) - as well as what it’s like to grow up in an immigrant family within a dominant white culture to her sessions with clients who resonate with the above. Despite the shared experience, she is careful to center your life and your perspective, and not her own.

Our therapists are eager to support you, click the button below to learn more about how we can help!

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