Meet Dr. Yeji Son

I'm Yeji. I came to Seattle, Washington from Pohang, a coastal city in South Korea. Pohang is often known as a hardworking, direct, and emotionally modest place.

In 2016, I started a life adventure and moved to a different country to learn about human psychology and to become a "professional helper." But I did not know what I was going to learn, or who I was going to become.

Moving to a different country changed how I understood myself. I was once a person who belonged to the racial and ethnic majority, someone who did not have to think much about racism. Then, all of a sudden, I became a minority. I moved from citizen to temporary resident to immigrant. I moved from native speaker to someone who had to ask, "Can you say that one more time?" again and again.

That shift taught me that human experience depends deeply on context. It shapes how we see ourselves, which is part of what we call identity. We live in the world through many lenses: temperament, culture, language, race, immigration status, biology, neurodiversity, and the relationships around us. All of these experiences interact with the world we live in.

I enjoy working with clients who are unsure whether their story will be heard without judgment. I cannot guarantee perfect understanding, but I do care deeply about respect, honesty, and helping you feel relatively safe.

Fundamentally, I believe this deeply: you are worthy of being heard.

How I work

My style is warm, direct, and honest. I believe the relationship between us matters more than any technique, so we build that first. Without trust, the things that actually need to be said stay unsaid.

Many of my clients come to therapy ready to work. If that's you, don't worry. I won't let you stay comfortable forever. Real growth requires well-designed challenge: not pressure for its own sake, but the right stretch at the right time.

In practice, that means I ask real questions, notice what your body is doing while you talk, and sometimes say out loud the thing no one else has.

Approach to Therapy

For individuals, I draw from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an approach that helps you relate differently to difficult thoughts and emotions while moving toward what matters to you. I also work with Gestalt therapy, which focuses on what is happening here and now, in your body and in the room, rather than only analyzing the past. For clients working through trauma, I use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain reprocess painful memories so they stop feeling like they are happening now.

All of this rests on trauma-informed care: safety and pacing come first, so therapy never repeats the pressure that hurt you. We work with mind, body, and the stories you carry, not just symptoms.

For couples, my approach is Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), an attachment-based and evidence-based approach that looks at the emotional pattern underneath the conflict: not who started the fight, but what each partner is really reaching for. I help partners slow down, see that pattern together, and find new ways to reach each other.

Who might be a good fit?

You might feel at home here if:

• Old wounds still shape how you love, work, or rest, and you're ready to look at them
• Your mind works differently, whether or not you have a name for it yet, and you're tired of being told to just try harder
• You live between two cultures or two languages, and you're tired of explaining the context before you can even get to the feeling
• You want a therapist who is warm but won't just nod along

And one honest note: as a solo virtual practice, I'm not able to provide crisis services or in-person care. If that's what you need right now, I'm glad to help you find the right resource.

Education & Training

Specialized Training

Education

Professional Work Experience

Before private practice, I trained across university counseling centers, community mental health, addiction recovery, career development, and rehabilitation settings, in Korea, Singapore, and across the United States.