Hi, I’m Helen. I’m glad you’re here.

I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California, a Filipina American therapist, writer, podcast host, wife, and founder of Sincere Practice.

I work with clients who are thoughtful, self-aware, high-functioning, and often exhausted. Many are used to being the responsible one: the one who reads the room, keeps the peace, manages the emotional temperature, and tries not to need too much.

My approach is relational, culturally aware, and practical. I care about what happened to you, but I also care about what happens next: how you speak, choose, repair, set boundaries, trust yourself, and build relationships where you can stay present without disappearing.

Clients often come in saying:

• 01“Everyone thinks I’m fine, but I’m exhausted.”
• 02“I feel guilty every time I have a need.”
• 03“I want to be honest, but I’m scared it will hurt the relationship.”
• 04“We keep having the same fight.”
• 05“I want faith included, but I don’t want my pain minimized.”

For the one everyone thinks is fine.

You may be capable, responsible, self-aware, and deeply trusted. You may be the one who remembers the details, reads the room, keeps the peace, supports the family, performs well at work, and tries not to need too much.

But inside, you may feel anxious, resentful, disconnected, or tired of being the person who holds everything together. You may feel guilty for saying no, guilty for wanting space, guilty for being angry, guilty for disappointing people, or guilty for not being more grateful.

Therapy gives you a place to stop performing wellness and start telling the truth about what you are carrying.

Common themes we may work through:

• 01Family pressure, guilt, loyalty, obligation, and fear of disappointing people.
• 02Over-functioning, people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion.
• 03Dating, marriage, faith, identity, culture, and becoming your own person.
• 04Learning how to set boundaries without becoming cold or disconnected.
• 05Understanding the younger parts of you that learned to be good, easy, useful, quiet, or impressive.

What we are moving toward:

More self-trust. More emotional honesty. More room to be a whole person. A life where love does not require you to disappear.

For couples who want repair, not just better arguments.

Interracial couples often carry more than communication issues. A disagreement may include culture, family expectations, race, belonging, faith, gender roles, emotional safety, loyalty, and old wounds that neither partner fully knows how to name.

You may love each other deeply, but still feel stuck in repeating patterns: one partner pursues, one withdraws; one explains, one shuts down; one wants closeness, one feels criticized; one feels unseen, the other feels like nothing they do is enough.

Couples therapy helps you slow the pattern down. We work to understand what each person is protecting, where trust has been injured, and what repair needs to look like in real life.

What we may work on:

• 01Communication that escalates, loops, avoids, or goes nowhere.
• 02Culture, family expectations, in-laws, race, faith, and belonging.
• 03Repair after hurt, mistrust, resentment, betrayal, or emotional distance.
• 04Learning how to fight without threatening the relationship.
• 05Building emotional safety, tenderness, honesty, and shared language.

What we are moving toward:

Not perfect communication. Real repair. A relationship where both people can tell the truth, feel understood, take responsibility, and return to each other with more care.

Anxiety is often carrying a story.

Anxiety can look like overthinking, pressure, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional responsibility, guilt, resentment, indecision, or a constant sense that you are behind.

For many clients, anxiety is not random. It often formed in relationships where they had to be careful, impressive, useful, quiet, agreeable, or emotionally responsible. Anxiety becomes the part of you that scans for danger, tries to prevent disappointment, and keeps you from making the wrong move.

Therapy helps you slow the anxiety down without shaming it. We listen for what it is protecting, then practice new ways of relating to yourself and others.

Anxiety therapy may help with:

• 01Overthinking and replaying conversations.
• 02Fear of disappointing people or being misunderstood.
• 03Perfectionism, achievement pressure, and never feeling like enough.
• 04People-pleasing, conflict avoidance, and difficulty saying no.
• 05Learning how to respond instead of constantly bracing.

What we are moving toward:

A steadier nervous system. Clearer choices. Less guilt. More ability to pause, tell the truth, and move through life without constantly preparing for rejection.

Faith can be included without rushing your pain.

Christian counseling at Sincere Practice is not about forcing a spiritual answer onto an emotional wound. It is not about using Scripture to silence grief, prayer to avoid anger, or faith to bypass the truth of what happened.

It is about making room for your actual lived experience with God, yourself, your family, your body, and your relationships. Faith can be a source of comfort, conviction, confusion, grief, hope, anger, and longing. All of that can have room.

Faith integration is optional. You decide how much or how little you want it included.

Christian counseling may include:

• 01Prayer, Scripture, discernment, grief, doubt, and spiritual formation.
• 02Working through shame, fear, people-pleasing, church hurt, or spiritual exhaustion.
• 03Dating, marriage, calling, family expectations, identity, and boundaries.
• 04Making space for honest questions without rushing toward a polished answer.
• 05Learning the difference between conviction, anxiety, guilt, and fear.

What we are moving toward:

A faith that is honest enough to hold your pain, mature enough to face reality, and gentle enough to make space for your humanity.

Postpartum can hold more than one truth at once.

You can love your baby and still feel overwhelmed. You can be grateful and resentful. You can be tender and angry. You can be faithful and still feel lost. You can be capable and still need help.

Therapy gives you a place to tell the truth about what changed: your body, your relationship, your faith, your family role, your energy, your identity, your sleep, your freedom, and your sense of self.

Postpartum therapy may help with:

• 01Anxiety, overstimulation, or feeling constantly on alert.
• 02Guilt for needing help, wanting space, or feeling unlike yourself.
• 03Resentment that surprises or scares you.
• 04Grief over who you were before this season.
• 05Relationship strain, invisible labor, and honest conversations about support.

What we are moving toward:

More support. More truth. Less shame. A steadier sense of self in a life that has changed dramatically.

Therapy you can actually use outside the room.

Therapy with me is relational, culturally aware, emotionally honest, and practical. We move slowly enough to notice what is happening, but clearly enough that the work does not stay vague.

Many clients already have insight. They know something is wrong. They may understand the family pattern, the relationship problem, the anxiety cycle, or the childhood wound. But knowing is not the same as changing. Therapy helps bring that insight into real conversations, boundaries, repair, and choices.

The work often moves through three layers:

• 01Name what feels heavy. Anxiety, resentment, conflict, grief, family pressure, faith questions, postpartum change, or disconnection.
• 02Understand the pattern. How you learned to protect yourself by pleasing, performing, shutting down, over-functioning, or disappearing.
• 03Practice a steadier way. More honesty, clearer boundaries, better repair, and relationships where you can stay connected without abandoning yourself.

The cost is clear before you reach out.

I want therapy to feel emotionally clear and practically clear. That includes knowing the rate before you book a consult.

Sincere Practice is an out-of-network provider. Depending on your plan, you may be reimbursed for part of your session fee. Use the benefits calculator below to estimate what your plan may cover.

What happens next?

• 01Check your benefits if you want to understand possible reimbursement.
• 02Book a 15-minute consult if the rate and approach feel aligned.
• 03We talk briefly about what feels heavy and whether therapy together seems like a good fit.