my life’s work is to transform stories that hold us captive into stories that set us free.
Like many others during the COVID-19 pandemic, I underwent a period of rapid transformation instigated by a series of personal and collective crises. Through introspection, I came to understand that much of what had been baked into my identity was not intrinsic to who I was, but a set of narratives born from my entanglements with larger systems, intergenerational trauma, and personal wounds.
Unbeknownst to me, my body, heart, and mind had been beholden to these stories that told me that I was not enough, that the world was untrustworthy, and that scarcity marked the state of the world. These messages were producing various forms of psychic, physical, and spiritual dis-ease. My heart was blocked. My soul was hidden. My life force was gnarled and stagnant.
As these stories started to break down, I realized that they were not only untrue, but were keeping me from seeing another unfolding story: one that held me as a sacred being with a purpose, a unique soul with a place amongst the many relations on earth and in the unseen world.
In partnership with a cadre of healers, community, and ancestral guides, I began to reclaim my birthrights to voice, body, and heart, and discovered a life-affirming relationship to the unseen and more-than-human world. I healed from experiences of betrayal to deepen my trust in myself and something greater. I hope to share some of these hard-won insights through my work as a healer and writer.
ABOUT ME
I’m Natalie (she/her), a 2nd generation Taiwanese American cishet clinical psychologist, writer, and Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner-in-Training. I currently live in Cambridge, United Kingdom, but have lived on the East Coast of Turtle Island (United States) for most of my life. My ancestors are Han Chinese and Hakka people who settled in Taiwan between 100 and 400 years ago.
Please feel free to explore to learn more about me and my work. Perhaps you’ll even discover a trail to somewhere tender, meaningful, interesting, or alive in you.
My values
I believe that every person has an innate well of love, healing capacity, purpose and wisdom within that makes them whole. That well can be easily obscured by early programming, social conditioning, and necessary protection from wounds—all of which become baked into “ego” or “identity.” Influenced by relational psychodynamic therapy, Internal Family Systems, Jungian alchemy, dreamwork, trauma and dissociation-informed perspectives, I listen, write, and work to make the unconscious conscious, to witness and release traumatic experiences, and to increase alignment with the present, the heart, and sovereignty.
I also view the world through an anti-oppressive and animist lens that respects all living beings as people and values mutually reciprocal relations between them. I am committed to an approach of humility, ongoing learning, personal healing, and spiritual practice.
One of my passions is reimagining the future in the midst of our current ecological, sociopolitical, and spiritual polycrises by coming back into right relationship with the more-than-human world. I seek to do this powerful work where psychological, social, creative, and spiritual realms meet.
In my psychotherapy, writing, Ancestral Lineage Healing, and daily life, I hope to companion others through their healing by honoring their multifaceted personhood, particular histories, and unique soul purpose.
