Hello and Welcome

I am a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with an MSW (Master’s of Social Work degree) from NYU. I also completed education and training to be a CASAC (Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor) certified by New York State.

I received my post graduate training and supervision at Long Island Consultation Center in Rego Park, Queens, where I collaborated with psychiatrists treated adults, families and children with chronic and severe mental illnesses and addiction to alcohol, opiates and prescription medications.

There, I was deeply affected by the devastation left by opioid addiction and alcoholism in families of all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. Addiction does not spare any one or any people. Helping clients at different stages of addiction in individual and group settings, I learned what these clients had in common was a damaged connection to themselves and to others.

Problem drinking

It is my belief that abstinence isn’t the only goal in substance abuse treatment. Decreasing intake and frequency and learning to moderate can also be the goal when dealing with problem drinking and moderate drug abuse.

However, it is not the same with opiates since it is so easy to overdose. Therefore, abstinence should be the only goal. I should note that in my practice I do not work with clients with active opioid addictions as it is outside my ability as a solo practitioner, and I will make referrals to inpatient rehabs and other treatment facilities.

I've also worked as a front-line social worker in the Bronx serving families of women with HIV/AIDS, serious mental illness and severe drug and alcohol addiction. My internship during grad school was at a residential drug rehabilitation center for men and women with serious addictions to drugs and alcohol, many of them on methadone and mandated to treatment by the criminal justice system. 

New York City has been my home for the past 20 years. And, like so many New Yorkers, I am an immigrant; I was born in Seoul, Korea and immigrated to the Midwest when I was ten. Before transitioning in to the helping profession, I was a publishing and advertising professional.