Today we’d like to introduce you to Kieu Hatch.
Kieu, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
At a very early age, I was very attuned and sensitive to other people’s thoughts and feelings. I naturally loved asking people questions and was curious at their life story. I was raised a Christian and so extending care and kindness to others, valuing others’ thoughts/feelings was a life mission since childhood and continues to this day.
I wasn’t sure what career I wanted to do when I got into college and didn’t start declaring a major until my second year at UC Irvine, I graduated with a B.A. in Social Ecology, with a specialization in Psychology and Social Behavior. What was amazing about this degree was the incorporation of all three areas to understand human nature: psychology, the legal/justice system, and the environment. A seed of passion to counsel others began to plant in me. I then worked for two years, full time as Social Worker at The Salvation Army, working with the homeless population and a women/children’s homeless shelter. I learned that I naturally and enthusiastically gravitated towards the counseling aspect more than the social work aspects of the job. Working full time helped me to solidify my career goal, to be a therapist. I attended Hope International University where a completed my M.A. in Marriage Family Child Counseling.
I began gaining hours for licensure as an intern working for a DMH (Department of Mental Health) contracted agency, working with low socio-economic children and families with Medical. I really enjoyed the direct clinical work with my clients. I was later promoted as Supervisor, began provided Clinical Supervision and also became Clinic Manager for an adult clinic and later a children’s clinic. I gained valuable management skills and enjoyed providing direction and support for my team.
After 10 years with DMH, I transitioned to Fuller Theological Seminary’s Psychological and Family Services as a Clinical Supervisor.
Fuller additionally offered me a private practice, which was a new and refreshing experience for me after a decade of working with Medi-Cal families. I worked with students and individuals/families with middle to high socio-economic status. Thus, I was able to work with a diversity of clients from my past job experiences. Within a year, I made a big, courageous leap and opened up my own private practice business since June of 2016. It’s such an exhilarating experience to have your own business. It does have its challenges, but the freedom and creativity that I have for my therapy work today is phenomenal and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
Life is about taking risks and although we get fearful and are not confident in our skills and abilities, if we don’t take risks and take the faith leap to “jump in”, we live on the edge, looking in on what “could have been” but never knowing what “can be”. My passion is to help others take risks and to go for their dreams so that there are no regrets!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life does not come without struggles. And yet the best life lessons sometimes come from our hardest struggles. I think the core struggle for me was not believing in myself. not having the confidence and faith to overcome the negative and unfortunately mean, unhappy people along my life’s journey. I wish I had a magic wand to keep those critical, judgmental people away from me, but I couldn’t control that. Sad people want to make others sad. Hurt people hurt others. Critical, negative people find fault with others because they are un-willing to be humble to look at the mistakes in their own life. It’s easier to point the fingers at others than yourself. Critical people are unhappy people. No one is perfect and yet negative people demand perfection.
Unfortunately, negative people are everywhere – in our homes, at our workplaces (our colleagues, our bosses), our teachers, our government leaders, even in some of our friendships. Although we grow up as adults and are expected to handle these situations better than when we were children, many times we just don’t have the skills to know how to handle this. I didn’t get taught how to handle these types of people. I wasn’t taught how to have good, safe boundaries and be encouraged to take good care of my emotional well-being. I was taught how to be good, kind, and caring towards others. But when others are un-kind to me, I didn’t know what to do.
And thus, we get hurt, we feel confused or lost, we get depressed, and slowly but surely, we let these negative experiences grow and fester and these negative self thoughts/feelings take over our life and we then one day aren’t as able to take risks or to dream as big. We lose hope because we don’t believe in ourselves and feel un-worthy.
It’s been a journey of healing and recovery for me to not let what others’ think about me be a dominating factor in my life. Thank goodness for the 12-steps that I attended years ago, my spiritual faith, and loving, healthy relationships I was able to obtain later in my life. These built a solid foundation for me to anchor my life on – the spiritual principles and practices, real-life tools. I also have learned about the power of grace, forgiveness, and am able to build healthy relationships with people who are encouraging and supportive to me. I’ve learned to be courageous to speak up and let others know what I’m feeling and thinking and needing.
Negative people want to shame us when we make mistakes. Encouraging/supportive people expect we’ll make mistakes and help us to learn and grow. I’ve learned and continue to learn to ignore negativity in all aspects of my life, particularly to not let someone’s words and actions against me, dictate to me who I am and what I am capable of achieving. I am passionate about helping others experience this freedom as well!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a Marriage and Family therapist, licensed since 2009 and have been working in the field for 13 years. I am passionate to help people live out their dreams, to obtain healthy relationships, and to have a healthy mind, body, soul/spiritual connection for themselves and with others. I want to be able to help you fulfill the things you’ve been wanting to but don’t know how or that you don’t believe in yourself to be able to complete your life goals. I love working with core issues such as identity (who you are, what you are capable of, discovering your natural gifts, abilities and talents, and helping raise people’s self-esteem so they can have confidence to do all they are wanting to achieve.
I think what sets me apart is my keen ability to provide warmth, care and understanding to my clients in creative ways that helps each individual feel important and valued. I also bring a good balance of helping my clients obtain the results they need to lessen the problems they came in with. I’m cultural sensitive and enjoy working with diverse, multi-ethnic clients of all ages. I will develop treatment plans that will best suit your individual needs. Please call me for an appointment so we can discuss what you are needing help with.
I am able to provide Clinical Supervision. I am also available as a Speaker & Consultant/Trainer on mental health issues that greatly impact us personally and professionally at the workplace and schools. I am currently providing training to recovery support group leaders.
I have extensive experience in the following Specialization Areas:
-Children/Adolescents & Parenting: Triple P Certified (Positive Parenting Program
-Couples: Marital/Pre-marital [Prepare Enrich certified, Authorized Relationship Enhancement Program Educator/Leader, NIRE (The National Institute of Relationship Enhancement)] Separation/Divorce, Domestic Violence
-Relationship Addiction/Codependency Issues
-Sex Addiction
-Trauma/Victims of Crime: TF-CBT Certified (Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Seeking Safety Certified)
-Workplace Issues: Interpersonal conflict, Communication problems, Harassment, Discrimination
-Spiritual/Religious Issues, Christian counseling
Groups:
-Parenting/Co-Parenting
-Divorce/Separation
-Grief, Loss & Bereavement
Languages: Bilingual Vietnamese
-I accept PPO Out of Network or self-pay (cash/check/credit) and VCP funding (Victims Compensation Program)
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment is not in something that I have achieved or a challenging task I have completed. It’s not about me. It’s about my clients. What continues to be an honor and a proud moment for me simply is when I’m able to help people live out their dreams and passions and to fulfill their life purpose. This is so rewarding for me and I’m honored to be able to be a part of this sensitive, important process in peoples’ lives. I value the trust that others have working with me and respect the therapy pace my clients are comfortable with.
When my client has told me, “You get me, you understand me”, this is a very proud moment for me.
Pricing:
- Individual therapy 50 minutes at $160
- Children/Couples/Family therapy 50 minutes at $180
- Group therapy at $55 for 1 Hr. 15 min.
Contact Info:
- Address: 95 N. Marengo Avenue, Suite 205, Pasadena, CA 91101
- Phone: 626-642-8240
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therapy4freedom
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/kieuhatchlmft/
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