Kristie Tse, LMHC

Hi, I’m Kristie! As a first generation Asian American, I was born with immigrant parents who enforced a culture of silence when it came to mental health challenges in order to “make it” in the US. The unspoken assumption was that emotional breakdowns were a luxury reserved for privileged folx and “keeping it together” was our only ticket to success. Being raised in New York and positioned as the “model minority” race reinforced the idea that swallowing our pain, putting our heads down, and working hard to achieve our goals was the norm. At an earlier age, I believed I had to hustle harder than everyone else to get what I wanted whether it was my career success, fulfilling relationships, or mental wellbeing. Over time, I was able to recognize that my beliefs were deeply rooted and finally learned strategies to cultivate a life of ease without sacrificing my ambition.

It turns out that the more Asian Americans I spoke to and worked with, the more I realized: we all secretly want to hustle with ease and have healthy relationships, but as a community, we face unique roadblocks that make it harder for us to achieve that – from our collectivistic values that encourages peacekeeping over self-advocacy to cultural assimilation that glorifies burn out over mental health to the “model minority” myth that assumes we are self-sufficient. It’s no wonder we grow up to be adults who minimize our needs, shrink our voices, and keep our problems to ourselves. The deeper problem isn’t that we don’t need any help. It was that we’ve been so heavily oppressed and deeply disempowered that we couldn’t even imagine having help that could truly support us. This is why I am particularly passionate about uplifting Asian Americans, specifically adult children of immigrants, to nurture themselves and to speak up in their relationships, at work, and society at large.

Today, I help high achievers who minimize their struggles discover practical ways to ditch outdated beliefs and advocate for their needs. I believe that in order to break free from old patterns and choose something different, we’ve got to be willing to get deeply vulnerable and do the work — and that requires forming an authentic connection with a therapist who simplifies the tools to succeed and encourages us to foster self-leadership on a consistent basis. I bring my full self and the depth of my experience to each one of my sessions, with the goal of helping my clients pave a path that allows them to live a life of ease.