Agnes Kwong, Ph.D., SEP

I see therapy as a way of understanding the internal and/or external barriers that keep us from being our best selves and from living a value-aligned life. You may be considering therapy because you feel stuck or dissatisfied about some parts of your life. You might be aware of the person you want to be and can be, but something is getting in the way and you would like to understand what. Or, you might need a place to talk about difficult experiences so you can make sense of them. As someone who truly believes in the healing power of therapy and connection, I am glad you are considering therapy as a way of reaching your potential, regardless of whom you choose as your therapist.

When you decide to work with me, you are inviting me to go on a deeply important and personal journey with you. On this journey, you are the person who ultimately gets to decide how quickly or slowly we go, the destinations along the way, and the side trips you want to take. I will be beside you along the way, making observations, pointing things out, giving encouragement as needed. In this way, I take a collaborative approach to therapy and have a transparent, warm, open, active, and supportive style.  Supportive, however, does not mean the absence of challenge. You will find that I can be gently challenging and I will share my authentic observations and thoughts with you, even if they may be difficult to hear.

I work from an anti-oppression and multicultural lens. I am a strength-based therapist who integrates systems, interpersonal, emotion-focused, feminist, somatic experiencing, and psychodynamic approaches into my work. By systems, I mean I consider the different historical, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts in which my clients were raised and currently live (e.g., intergenerational transmission of trauma, politics, race, social class, sexual orientation, gender, generation, disability) as well as the family system within which they grew up and currently have. As an interpersonal therapist, I value our therapeutic relationship deeply and see it as a significant vehicle for change; it is also a relationship that can parallel patterns that you have with others in your life and so examining our relationship and providing an open, safe, honest, and authentic connection is paramount in my work with you. I also integrate Emotion-Focused Therapy into both my individual and relationship therapy, which means I help individuals and couples identify, clarify and express their feelings and core needs to both themselves and others. As a feminist therapist, I see our work as collaborative and ultimately see you as the expert of your history and experience; this is tied closely to my social justice lens which is very intersectional in nature.  I do also see the body as holding a lot of wisdom and stories for us and as such, I am attuned to the stories that your body is trying to tell that may be outside your awareness. We can integrate as much or as little somatic oriented work and interventions into our work together as you would like. Finally, I integrate interventions from other theories such as Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as needed.

New York University
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology (2007)

Teachers College, Columbia University
M.A. & Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology (2002)

University of Alberta
B.A. (Honors) in Psychology (1998)

Northwest Health and Human Rights, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Seattle, WA
Volunteer, Human Rights Evaluator

University of Washington, Counseling Center
Seattle, WA
Practicum Coordinator
Supervising Psychologist

University of Davis, Counseling Center
Davis, CA
Practicum Coordinator
Supervising Psychologist
Graduate Student Coordinator

New York Asian Women’s Center
New York, NY
Clinical Supervisor

New York University 
New York, NY
Instructor for graduate level Counseling Skills

Clinical Training

• Somatic Experiencing, Intermediate Level (3 year training)
• Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples, Externship (4 days)
• Prolonged Exposure for trauma (4 days)
• Radically Open DBT (RO-DBT) (3 days)<
• University of California, Davis Counseling Center – College population, training and supervision specialization (internship and postdoctoral fellowship years)
• Riverview Hospital – Vancouver, Canada – Inpatient assessment
• Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY – Children, families, and adults in outpatient
• Baruch College, New York, NY – College population and career counseling
• St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, New York, NY – Outpatient population