Johnny Xu
MSW, LCSW
Associate Psychotherapist
Pronouns: He/him
My Clinical Background
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Virtual Only
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-Blue Cross Blue Shield
-Aetna
-United Healthcare (UBH)
-Point32 (Harvard Pilgrim)
-Cigna
-Optum (Oscar/Oxford) -
-Acceptance commitment therapy (ACT)
-Trauma-focused
-Attachment-based
-Somatic
-Mindfulness-based
-Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT)
-Emotionally focused individual therapy (EFIT)
-Existential -
-Developmental trauma and childhood neglect
-Attachment
-Children of immigrants
-Racial identity
-Life transitions
-Anxiety
-Depression
-Grief
-Estrangement
-Spirituality -
-Individuals
-Adults who are children of immigrants
-Older adults
-Primary caregivers of older adults
-People undergoing changes in relationships with significant others
-People who want a space to better understand themselves and their emotions (especially anger) -
Master of Social Work - University of Washington, Seattle
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- English
How I Can Support You
I believe the greatest gift a therapist can offer is full presence with a compassionate ear. Many of my clients have sought therapy because something that was working for them was no longer working, or they noticed patterns in their lives that they wanted to change. Many felt unseen, unheard, and stuck in relationships. Some noticed patterns of anxiety or anger impact their relationship with others or their work. Some were experiencing family estrangement, contemplating cutoff, or processing the loss of a loved one. Whatever it is that brings you to our therapy space, I want you to walk away from a session having felt that I was with you on the other side, to make sense of things when nothing was making sense. Give yourself permission to be here as you are. Are you ready to meet yourself honestly and listen to yourself? I am. What we acknowledge and admit to another becomes more real, and you matter. In our therapy space, even if you take your shoes off at the door, you can bring your whole self.
My Approach
I work with clients whose journey to therapy has been filled with ingenious ways to make due with what they have. Many find a major life transition (relationship, career, moving, school) challenging their current tools. Using attachment-based, somatic, and mindfulness-based therapies, we learn to slow down--to feel and then deal. To see where we may be unskillfully expending resources and how to reclaim them. Using an integrated-brain approach that values insight but doesn't stop there, I equip clients with an understanding of themselves in both their verbal and somatic narrative. As a social work-trained therapist, I strive to ensure that our therapeutic relationship is a refuge from larger systemic harm and trauma. I invite you to bring with you your current resources, social location, and values that you have inherited from your family of origin, ancestors, and communities.
Johnny’s Library
About Me
My social location is a second generation Asian American rooted in immigrant and working class communities in New York City, Greater Boston, Quincy, and Seattle. I have extensive experience working with Asian diasporas and children of immigrants. Having grown up in immigrant tenement apartments in New York City's Lower East Side, I bring to my interactions a deep respect for the working class communities that are the backbone of American society. I believe, as Thich Nhat Hanh and the historical Buddha did, that no one needs to be uprooted from their ancestral meaning-making and traditions to heal and thrive.