Joy Shuo, LMFTA

I work with individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, or trauma from childhood or relationships, and help couples and families move through communication struggles and conflict with more understanding, connection, and compassion so their relationships can feel safer and stronger.

I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate at Inner Canvas Counselling and Coaching, offering in-person therapy in Issaquah and telehealth across Washington State. I hold a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University and a Bachelor degree in Social Work from Singapore University of Social Sciences. My approach integrates Internal Family Systems (IFS), Narrative Therapy, and expressive arts-informed practices. These offer ways to understand protective patterns, explore the stories shaping your life, and express what words alone may not capture. With Gottman Method Levels 1 and 2 training, I help couples recognise conflict cycles and practise skills for communication and repair. You are the expert on your life. I walk alongside you with curiosity, compassion, and gentle directness, making space for honest conversations, tears, insight, and humour. We work at a pace that respects your needs and readiness.

I believe in holistic healing that honours our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Losing loved ones to illness and cancer deepened my interest in supporting wellbeing through nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and time in nature, especially walks and hiking. My pastoral ministry and experiences as a parent of six and foster parent have strengthened my belief that we need community to grow and thrive. The stories we tell ourselves shape our lives. Relationships, experiences, and wider systems influence them. I help people explore these stories with curiosity and compassion, and find ways to retell them with greater hope and agency. Moving to the US as a Singaporean Chinese brought the vulnerability of navigating a new culture. During one of my hardest and darkest seasons, I drew deeply on my faith for strength and hope. I welcome people of all faiths and those with none, and offer space to discover or reconnect with faith and spirituality when meaningful to you.