About Dr. Angela Gwak
NY & NJ licensed psychologist and founder of Resonance Psychology PLLC
Adult Third Culture Kids (TCKs) concerns
Anxiety
Asian American mental health concerns
Coping skills
Depression
Emotion regulation
Grief
Life adjustment, transitions, and life stage concerns (e.g., singleness, dating, relocations, career changes, newlywed stages, marriage, parenthood, young adulthood, empty-nester)
Loneliness
Mindfulness
Multicultural identity concerns (e.g., racial, spiritual, gender, sexuality, heterosexism, marginalized identity stress, etc.)
Pregnancy/postpartum concerns (e.g., maternal mental health, new parents)
Relationship difficulties (e.g., family, social, marital, in-laws, couple, dating, & work interpersonal dynamics)
Self-esteem, self-worth, and self-confidence issues
Stress management (e.g., career, parenting, work-life balance)
Time management, organizational skills, & procrastination
Trauma, vicarious trauma, complex trauma (C-PTSD) & intergenerational trauma
I can help you with
I see therapy as a unique space where a valuable and supportive relationship can be established to propel you towards making healthier changes and help you experience meaningful growth. So, I strive to connect with you, authentically, to ensure a therapeutic space that is safe, healing, and productive. Going at your pace, we strive together to find solutions to your struggles and move towards your goals.
In terms of my personal style in therapy, I engage actively through conversation and would describe myself as empathic, warm, supportive, thoughtful, and inquisitive. I use various evidence-based techniques and relational approaches in therapy. For example, I can help you identify unhelpful thoughts and reactions that keep you stuck. I can also equip you with tangible skills and help to co-create solutions to untangle difficulties that you may be faced with.
Part of our work may include finding alternative ways to navigate your life, which can help you gain new perspectives, take actionable steps and feel better. My goal is to equip you with these new skills and help you practice in and out of session.
I also value understanding how you relate to others as we often need meaningful connections and relationships in our lives. So, we may also reflect on your present and past relationships to pinpoint unhelpful patterns that keep you from deeply enjoying and maintaining connections with others.
In therapy, I will tailor therapy to fit who you are, what matters to you, and how you hope to grow. I aim to help you find greater clarity, experience healing, build more confidence, and untangle difficulties with individually tailored support.
I believe you can absolutely cultivate a greater fulfilling life, career, and relationships as long as you are also fully committed to take action and moving forward towards positive change.
How I work
As a multiculturally responsive psychologist
It is especially important that you feel fully seen, heard, and accepted for who you are in sessions with me.
To foster this, I am committed to:
Asking questions so I can learn from your perspectives and unique identities. I actively strive to avoid making assumptions. I invite you to join me in candid dialogue at the onset of therapy but also throughout our work.
Understanding your pain and struggles within the context of larger sociopolitical and cultural systems (e.g. systems of oppression, power, and privilege), since I believe our lives are impacted by being part of a larger, at times, unjust world. I work to respond in session in ways that are sensitive to your walk of life and context.
Being a life-long learner and growing as a multiculturally responsive psychologist. I seek self-reflection, feedback via consultation, and commit to being up to date on evolving research on best multicultural practices.
Types of therapy I use
I have an integrative evidence-based and relational approach to therapy, which include but not limited to the following techniques and modalities:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Multicultural Therapy
Relational Cultural Therapy
Trauma-informed Therapy
Systems Therapy
Structural Family Therapy
Psychodynamic Therapy
Solution-focused Therapy
Attachment Based Therapy
Education
PhD, Counseling Psychology - Columbia University in the City of New York
MPhil, Counseling Psychology- Columbia University in the City of New York
MFT, Master’s in Couple and Family Therapy - Drexel University
NY State License (Active)
NJ State License (Active)
NPI Number: 1457097628
As a TCK (Adult Third Culture Kid), I lived in four different continents so far and grew up in South Korea, Belgium, South Africa, and the U.S. But I consider NYC my true home. The exposures and lived multicultural experiences strengthened my innate ability to be attuned to and to connect with individuals of different cultural backgrounds and geographical locations. I am also fluent in Korean and proficient in French.
My scholarly interests and research projects included multicultural responsive psychological approaches to therapy for the underserved (e.g., I did research and wrote about Asian American mental health, multicultural in-law relationships, women in poverty, psychological sequelae of microaggressions, sexism, classism, racism, heterosexism etc.).
I enjoy traveling, the scent of nature’s morning fresh air, the sounds of rain, thunder and lightning, spicy foods, and spending quality time with loved ones (especially tickling my two little boys!).