Franklin Co, Professional Counselor Associate

I am a professional counselor associate with particular interest in working with members of the BIPOC and queer communities. Adolescents and adults from all backgrounds are welcomed at my practice, which aims to be a nonjudgmental space that validates struggle, normalizes emotions, and fosters resilience.

My name is Franklin (he/him), and I’m glad you made it here! I am a Texas native born to an immigrant Chinese father from the Philippines and a white mother from a small coal mining town in rural Appalachia. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in psychology and child development from the University of Texas at Dallas before pursuing my master’s degree in professional mental health counseling at Lewis & Clark Graduate School.

I offer individual therapy to adolescents and adults. I have worked with mental health challenges including anxiety, OCD, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, and disordered eating. In sessions, my clients and I have worked together on issues related to self-worth, abuse and neglect, financial stress, self-harm, suicidality, religious and racial trauma, transphobia, substance use, executive dysfunction, and interpersonal violence. My practice is based in relational cultural theory (RCT), an approach with foundations in psychodynamic, multicultural, and feminist theories; and I incorporate interventions from additional modalities, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and narrative therapy.

In my practice, I use a relational and systemic lens to understand my clients’ problems. The relationships and cultures we occupy are significant factors that I consider as we explore your concerns and collaborate on solutions. My approach aims to neutralize imbalances in power between me and my clients based on our social locations (e.g., age, race, gender, sexual and affectional orientation, etc.). These identities are integral to our experiences in life, informing the values we hold, the beliefs we endorse, the privileges that benefit us, and the oppression we endure. I will work toward understanding the world as you see and live in it as we share and transfer the roles of expert, teacher, and healer.

In my practice with BIPOC clients, I validate the experiences of my clients to support their grounding in a reality that is often vilified, stereotyped, or ignored by the dominant culture; I encourage my clients to explore their identities and to identify their values as individuals and as members of a family/community; and I challenge my clients to use expansive thinking to make sense of their complex experiences and relationships.

In my practice with LGBTQIA2S+ clients, I provide a space for curiosity and learning where clients set the pace at which they explore and disclose; I support relational healing using the therapeutic alliance formed between me and my clients; and I aim for balance in our perspectives to include celebration, mourning, frustration, and hope.

When I’m not working, some of my favorite hobbies include being dog dad to my forever puppy, S’mores; singing in the car and at karaoke; climbing and yoga; watching movies (especially horror!); innovating new recipes in the kitchen; trying new restaurants; and traveling with friends.