Hi there. My name is Shuo 硕.
Pronounced like a SHOO and an OH,
put together to get Shuo (she/her).
Visual description: A picture of Shuo taken in recent years where she is smiling into the camera and wearing a white 3/4 sleeve shirt & necklace. She has shoulder length black hair and bangs that have stayed with her since circa 2007.
Stories are sacred to me. I come from a lineage where stories of resistance have been passed down for generations, revealing the power of storytelling to me at an early age. My name is one embodiment of this reveal. The Chinese character for Shuo 硕 comes from the union of ‘stone’ 石 (shí) and ‘page’ 页 (yè). Enveloped by my ancestors’ hopes, I can hear them still: strength accompanies each page of life. Though in time, I have learned that strength is not necessarily about ‘being strong’. Noticing the expansiveness and creativity of our own resistance to the problems in our lives relies on the stories we have access to and the meanings we ascribe to them. And when suffocated stories in our personal, intergenerational, and collective histories finally have a chance to unearth, breathe, and be witnessed, we cannot underestimate its potential to transform us.
Visual description: A picture of Shuo before age 5 wearing a pink sweatsuit, a yellow hat, and a side smirk while holding her soccer ball that she likely never used for kicking.
Here is a snippet of my story. I am a 1.5-gen immigrant of Chinese diaspora, cis woman, dragon, libra, and art-maker who has spent much of adulthood crawling back to what I call childhood wonders where curiosity, presence, and playfulness guide my ways of being. Like many journeys, the art of crawling home is not without clashes from negotiating multiple positions as a third culture kid living on colonized soil. Yet, I cherish childhood wonders. They invite me to a consciousness of abundance and teach me to be a student of the heart. Despite a world inundated with despair, I am reminded in this way that to touch joy is to practice our ethics and practice often with communities of care. From my partner to families to friends to ancestors to fellow practitioners committed to liberation work to the community members I serve to the land that holds me, I am forever changed by these relationships. Our love stories evolve and travel with me inside and outside of the ‘therapy room’.
"And what of solidarity? I am thinking of a solidarity that is constructed by therapists who refuse to draw a sharp distinction between their lives and the lives of others, who refuse to marginalize those persons who seek help, by therapists who are constantly confronting the fact that if faced with the circumstances such that provide the context of troubles of others, they just might not be doing nearly as well themselves."
Michael White
Qualification.
I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor #LH61523276 in WA State. I have a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Northwestern University.
Population.
While individual adults (18+) of all social locations are welcome to inquire about my practice, I primarily serve those at the intersection of multiply marginalized identities whose stories have for too long been deliberately erased and delegitimized. My heart holds a particularly tender space for working with those who identify as AAPI.
Community.
I regularly collaborate and seek consultation with multigenerational practitioners as we deepen our individual and collective practices of decolonizing care-making through centering anti-oppressive love, relational accountability, and the vibrancy of our multistoried lives.