Client Stories

Jenny O., Salvadoran-Chingona, age 50:

“I was feeling broken and fragile, like I was in crisis, between my health issues, leaving San Francisco, and ending a heartbreaking relationship that brought up old wounds. With Sho-Sho’s guidance through IFS therapy, I learned how to regulate my nervous system, get in tune with my body, and leave the relationship that was making me feel sick－after just a few months instead of spending years trying to make it work.

Sitting with discomfort doesn’t scare me anymore. I have opened myself up to more sexual experiences, to love, to rest, and to seeing things not as a victim, but as someone who can deal with anything that comes her way. I continue to work on not dimming my light and receiving abundance in my life.”

Alisa A., Biracial, age 27:

“After being together for five years, my white male partner and I were in trouble. Sho-Sho helped us see that we were each at different points on a journey of racial exploration both as individuals and as also a couple. That reframe helped me be more comfortable and confident expressing myself as a biracial woman. Now my partner and I are engaged to be married. Sho-Sho brought us back to the foundation of our relationship that we forgot about — our beautiful friendship.”

B.P., White American, age 37:

“Over the past five years, Sho-Sho has guided me through major life decisions and challenges, including the deeply personal journey of deciding to get top surgery. Her patience and support helped me feel fully confident in that decision, down to my core. She also helped me embrace my emotions, teaching me to see vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness. For the first time in my life, I’ve built trust with my inner self and learned to prioritize how I feel—not just what I think.

One of the things that sets Sho-Sho apart is how she meets me where I am. Whether it’s finding strategies to work with my aphantasia or helping me understand the impact of white supremacy and the patriarchy on my struggles, she is patient, thoughtful, and attuned to my unique situation. She reminds me to celebrate my growth and wins, no matter how small they seem, and has given me the confidence to face difficult emotions and trauma head-on.”

Annie A., Latinx, age 43:

“Being a queer woman of Latin descent, I was struggling with heartbreak and betrayal, along with PTSD, racism, ancestral and family issues. Sho-Sho helped me see my worth, that I am worth love and patience and freedom. She helped me create boundaries that allow me to walk through my life with safety. I loved that my emotions are welcome and held with compassion, whether it’s tears, laughter or anger. She has a deep understanding of the matters of the heart and what it means to be a woman in this world.”

Kevin P., Indian-American, age 36:

“I came to Sho-Sho with anxiety, confusion, anger, jealousy, helplessness, and despair in relation to the intersection of my sexuality and my identity as a South Asian American man. Throughout my work with her I felt blessed that I had found someone who seemed to “get it” and genuinely cared in a way that no one else I had sought help from did. Together we shed tears of catharsis, turned courageously towards trauma, and opened doors into exciting new worlds of sexual possibility.  I came away from my work with her having not only addressed the issues  which I wanted to, but also in a state of sexual wellbeing which I never thought would have been possible.”

Elayne C., Chinese-American, age 51

I always look forward to our sessions because I know I’ll be pleasantly and delightfully surprised, pushed out of my comfort zone in a positive way, and also very much seen and held safely. Sho-Sho has a true gift for taking people to challenging, uncomfortable places within, but doing so with fierce motherly love and protection.

It’s important to me that she is Asian-American. Her identity informs her style of work. She is capable of holding an Asian person like myself in all my complexity because she too has had to fight for recognition and she continuously pushes herself to grow.

Sho-Sho has a clear attunement to her inner life and is emotionally the bravest person I know. She doesn’t hold back or hesitate to say what is on her mind, but does so with such poetic and incisive wit that it goes down well. If you want to transform your being – to allow your inner light to come out and shine in the world – you will make your first step contacting Sho-Sho to guide you there.  She’s been on that journey herself and she will help you on yours. 

Ansab A., Pakistani, age 36  

“I trusted Sho-Sho because she understands poly, kink and spirituality. She really got me. I was suffering from grief, shock and loss of identity after a very bad break up when I started coaching. Rationally I knew I was depressed but my brain was in a flood and I was powerless. I thought I knew my blindspots but I was terrified I would walk into the “toxic girlfriend” trap again.

Sho-Sho helped me get into my body so that I could understand my body signals and map my emotional landscape. I use the tools she taught me all the time, especially when I feel my boundaries being crossed. The best test was when I went on a first date recently but it never turned into a second date. I caught my pattern of how I once would have been a pleaser to someone like that. But not anymore!”

Seamus K., Artist & Educator, age 55:

“I worked with Sho-sho for 18 months to help navigate to a point of being my true, loving self. I worked with her around with the trauma of being raised in a home with drug, alcohol addiction, emotional turbulence and early parental deaths. It was her approach of being completely present with my emotions, through my tears, and providing a space of compassion and understanding, alongside the framework of IFS that has moved me into a place of healing. Her guidance was what I needed to complete this journey, after previous therapy programs that had laid the groundwork. Her approach both sincere and sophisticated, and embraced both my masculine and feminine energy that reflects who I really am.”

Akiba W., Chinese-American, age 46:

“I’ve expanded away from dating just Asians and into a full blown interracial partnership. I’m still feeling my way through the cultural intricacies, ie: racism, that’s involved, but I’m also becoming confident that I’m desirable to women of all races. Sho-Sho helped me become more confident in what I want and race became much less important. I won’t be minimized, I’ll dictate my own values, and become the person I want to be. In my understanding, masculinity is knowing what I want and not feeling selfish in asking for it.”

Kat T., Vietnamese, age 31:

“Sho-Sho is very understanding, comfortable to talk to, empowering, and a good model for how I’m learning to talk to myself as an Asian woman. I’ve done DBT and CBT therapy, as well as the Alanon recovery program for years, but they just allowed me to survive, not thrive. I needed help trusting my gut, making decisions, and unblocking the shame and guilt that hindered my ability to freely express and experience my sexuality.

Sho-Sho’s knowledge of kink and ethical non monogamy really allowed me to trust and connect with her. She helped me realize my power and use it with good intentions. As I became gentler and more nurturing with my younger parts through IFS, I learned to negotiate my true needs. Finally I started trusting myself and my decisions.“

Kevin L., Chinese-American, age 29:  

“I always wanted more intimate experiences but my life was seriously lacking in it. Once I started working with Sho-Sho, we figured out what was going on inside my body that was preventing me from getting intimate. Sho-Sho explained the workings of my body, my mind, and my life experience, how together they greatly influence intimacy and overall confidence. Also being from an Asian background, she related to my experience as an Asian American Man in a western society. Now having the newfound knowledge of how my body and mind work, I look forward to combining these elements to tackle life actively.”