Michelle Jeong

Michelle Jeong

(she/her)

Qualifying Canadian Certified Counsellor

I’m Michelle (she/her), a queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill qualifying counsellor and eldest daughter of first-generation Korean immigrants. My path into this work was shaped by navigating caregiving, cultural dissonance, and family history shaped by war, colonialism, and migration. I spent a decade supporting survivors of sexual & gender-based violence, as well as folks navigating trauma, substance use, poverty, and systemic harm, mostly in sexual assault centres and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. These experiences taught me to sit with layered grief, honour survival strategies, and recognize how often people are dismissed, or asked to both hide and prove their pain. I carry with me a deep commitment to culturally aware, justice-oriented care that honours complexity and resistance.

What is it like working with me?

I bring curiosity, warmth, and respect for your pace. Whether you come in with grief, ambivalence, protectiveness, or questions without tidy answers, I aim to co-create a space where you don’t feel the need to mask, prove your pain, or figure it all out. All parts of you are welcome. I value collaboration, relational safety, and the messiness and contradictions of being human. I believe therapy doesn’t start with fixing, it starts with listening, remembering, and reconnecting. Making space for what’s been difficult to hold alone.

I've been told that I bring a warm and grounding presence. At the same time, once we build trust in sessions together, I may gently challenge patterns or perspectives that no longer feel aligned, while supporting you in stretching toward the life and relationships you want for yourself.

As a covid-conscious counsellor, I am fully vaccinated and boosted, mask in public spaces, and am happy to wear a mask during in-person sessions!

How can I help? 

I support folks navigating trauma, sexual and gender based-violence, chronic pain and illness, neurodivergence, religious and cultural harm, identity, and systemic harm. I hold particular care for those who’ve felt unseen, pathologized, or excluded from traditional therapy spaces, especially 2SLGBTQ+ clients, survivors of systemic or intergenerational harm, and late-identified neurodivergent folks. Our work together might involve grief, boundaries, nervous system regulation, self-compassion, identity exploration, or reclaiming what has felt lost, silenced, or disconnected over time.

My approach is… 

Trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and rooted in feminist and systems-based frameworks. I draw from narrative therapy, somatic practices, emotion-focused therapy, and solution-focused practices, always considering the structural, cultural, and intergenerational contexts that shape our lives and ways of coping. I welcome feedback and collaboration, and am committed to ongoing unlearning.

I view humans as storytellers. Some of the stories we carry are shaped by lived experience, while others are inherited through relationships, culture, trauma, and the systems around us. Therapy can offer space to explore whether those stories still feel aligned with who we are and how we want to move through the world.

I also believe we’re often encouraged to disconnect from our bodies and treat thoughts as more important than sensations, emotions, or intuition. Together, we may work toward reconnecting with your body, emotions, and the different parts of yourself with greater curiosity, compassion, and self-understanding.

I am grounded in…

The belief that healing isn’t linear, tidy, or about “fixing,” but about reconnecting with parts of ourselves that have felt unwelcome or unseen. I honour the ways people adapt, survive, and make meaning in the face of struggle and disconnection, and view therapy as a space to be witnessed, not judged. At the core of my work is a commitment to co-creating culturally aware spaces that support meaning-making, and foster connection, self-trust, authenticity, and moments of delight alongside grief and complexity.

Fun Facts

Outside of counselling, my forest-gremlin soul finds peace and joy in green spaces, cooking with loved ones, tending to my balcony garden (and lemon tree Lenny), and snuggling with my two mini poodles.

Michelle is taking on new clients!

Online sessions upon request.

Session type:
Individuals, Teens/Adolescents (15+), Adults

Approach:

Narrative therapy, Justice-oriented, Trauma-informed, Anti-oppressive therapy, LGBTQ2S+ affirmative, Neurodivergent affirming, Disability Justice lens, Cultural Humility, EFT, Solution-focused, Somatic work

Specialties:

Sexual + Gender-Based Violence, Depression + Anxiety, Shame + Self-Compassion, Intergenerational + Relational Trauma, Identity, Neurodivergence, Chronic Pain + Nervous System Regulation, Boundaries, Relationships, Life Transitions, Substance Use, QTBIPoC Community

Languages:

English, Conversational Korean