Psychotherapy Services
I currently provide individual psychotherapy in English to adults via telehealth only. I'm not fluent in other languages to competently provide therapy. Telehealth is provided primarily through video but can be by phone if lack of internet access or privacy is an issue.
Pricing
Intake Assessment 75 Minute Session - $200.00
Individual Therapy 60 Minute Session - $175.00
Insurance
In-network:
- Aetna
- Blue Shield of California
- Optum Behavioral Health
- United Healthcare
Out-of-network: If clients want to use out-of-network benefits I can provide a superbill to assist with that.
Sliding Scale
I believe everyone should have access to therapy regardless of income so I like to offer a sliding scale fee for people when I can. I joined Open Path Psychotherapy Collective which is an organization that connects people to therapists that honor their sliding scale. You can learn more at their website or contact me directly.
There are also organizations that help people with financial barriers access therapy such as The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund for Black women and nonbinary folks, the Mental Health LIberation BIPOC Therapy Fund for BIPOC first-time therapy clients, and the National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network Mental Health Fund for QTBIPOC people. Additional mental health funds can be found here.
Therapeutic Approach
My therapeutic approach is eclectic and integrative which means I combine different approaches and selectively apply them to best fit your needs. Evidence based treatment simply means a majority of participants in studies showed improvement during those treatments, which is helpful for showing something works. That means there are multiple effective techniques but does not necessarily mean those treatments will work for you, that you will be comfortable with them, or believe they are helpful. Because of that I am flexible and open to your feedback to make adjustments when necessary.
I explain more about the therapies, techniques, and theories I draw from below.
Psychodynamic Therapy
This focuses on becoming more aware of and understanding our unconscious thoughts and motivations, which can affect our present beliefs or behaviors. The unconscious is shaped by our experiences and sometimes things stay unconscious because they are too painful to focus on consciously or we haven’t made sense of them yet. Understanding the unconscious or bringing it to the conscious involves analyzing thoughts, beliefs, and subjective experience to gain insight into what that all means for you.
Humanistic (Person- or Client-Centered) Therapy
This focuses on better understanding things in your life to overcome difficulties and improve life satisfaction through personal growth. It emphasizes personal strengths rather than focusing on what’s wrong but doesn’t ignore it either. It requires forming an egalitarian relationship between therapist and client, emphasizes empathy and interpersonal acceptance, fosters authenticity, and aims to find meaning in our lives and experiences.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
This emphasizes understanding identities, cultures, and belief systems to better incorporate them into therapy. It also accounts for interactions with dominant cultures within society, systematic oppression, individual prejudices, and microaggressions. I also consider the individual strengths clients gain from their identities, cultures, and belief systems.
Feminist Therapy
Although this started by focusing on cisgender women (particularly white women) and the oppression they experienced in society, it now encompasses all gender oppression and intersectionality of gender and other identities. It facilitates the therapeutic process by emphasizing personal empowerment, understanding oppression in all forms, and balancing power between therapist and client to form an egalitarian relationship.
Attachment Theory
This focuses on how emotional attachments to others, particularly when we’re children, can shape our social and emotional development. It often focuses on childhood because that is where the foundations of social and emotional functioning form but our attachments in adulthood also shape them. Understanding our attachments can help us better understand patterns in our relationships, which are not always healthy despite being familiar, and learn from them to improve relationships.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
This focuses on balancing and integrating the opposite pulls of emotional and logical thinking, which are both valid but not always helpful when separate. It incorporates mindfulness, acceptance, and change to better tolerate distress, influence one’s mood, and improve social interactions.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This focuses on changing the way you think or act. Sometimes reevaluating our situation or thinking about it differently can help improve mood. Sometimes we get stuck focusing on only the negative aspects of our situation. That doesn’t mean the negative aspects are incorrect because a lot of things about our lives are truly awful. It just means focusing too much on them can be unhelpful and keep you stuck. Some people have a negative experience with CBT because when applied rigidly it can be like gaslighting by telling you to correct your thinking even when your thinking makes sense for the situation or like toxic positivity by ignoring the negatives to focus only on the positives.
Mindfulness
This focuses on the present moment rather than the past we can’t change or the future that is unknown. There’s nothing wrong with reflecting on the past or wondering about the future but sometimes if we’re too focused on those, we miss opportunities to grow from the past and shape the future in the present.
Victoria Wu, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Phone: 669 319 8657
Located in San Jose, California on the unceded lands of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and Tamien Nation.
