I’m a 1.5 generation Korean American exvangelical. I’m a PK (pastor’s kid), who grew up in the church (like many Korean Americans). I spent most of my adolescent and young adult years running away from my dogmatic parents, whose only wish for me was to be a God-fearing, church-going Christian. I’ve traveled to over 60 countries, mostly by myself, in the hopes of getting as far away from them and the guilt and shame as possible. However, no matter how far I went, I could never completely eliminate those feelings and it felt like I was just putting a bandaid over a much deeper wound.

In my senior year of college at Northwestern University, I was run over by a taxi while waiting to cross the street. I was hospitalized for weeks and had to get surgery under my eye. My prevailing thought at the time was: “what did I do to deserve this?” which was a reoccurring theme in my life. Although this was one of the most traumatic events in my life, and something that took many years to recover from, an even greater trauma, which I’m still working through, was having to pretend to be someone that I’m not and living in constant fear that I would be abandoned or disowned.

And so after many years of not going to therapy, because I always thought therapy was just for rich white people, I finally hit my rock bottom and gave it a shot. It changed my life. I had been so hopeless for so long and I finally saw a vision of what a life I choose could look like. I knew then and there that this is why I’m still here—I’m here to help others like me find their own path and live the life that they want and deserve.