Stories & findings at the intersection of mental health, sexuality & spirituality through the lens of a Chinese American therapist who has performed in a grand total of one comedy festival.
My (oftentimes juvenile, inappropriate) humor has helped me to survive and make sense of aaallllllll the fuuuuun, weird traumatic, nonsensical shit that has traveled with me and my family through countless generations. If you’re an emotionally intense person who likes learning about trauma healing, depression, & anxiety, you’re in the right place. If you enjoy somewhat inappropriate humor & storytelling, you’re in the right place. I’m so glad you stopped by.
Like many stereotypical Asians, I am the child of immigrants, grew up with a “tiger mom” and took piano lessons with a horrible teacher (I tried to set my music books on fire by singing the corners of pages on lightbulbs…but was never courageous - or stupid - enough to just take a match to them). My parents said I lacked “passion” and encouraged me to be a pharmacist, dentist, or lawyer. If I had pursued any of those careers, I’d probably be dead by now, at least existentially.
But UNLIKE many cliches of Asians, my family started therapy with a Jewish pastor who’d converted to Christianity and participated in evangelical “spiritual healing” programs where we’d share letters about our childhood abuse on stage in front of hundreds of people. It was super cool.
Along the way in my almost 37 years of existence, I picked up bulimia, spent a lovely summer in Christian rehab, taught high school English in South Los Angeles, cried out of anger in front of my students, dated more emotionally unavailable men than I can remember, was secretly emotionally unavailable myself, kept my vagina tightly shut (mostly) for 29 years, realized I hated my vagina, cried a lot for no apparent reason, made my sweet older sister cry a lot, forced myself to confront scary authority figures, and never. ever. stopped. trying to make sense of my own emotional experience.
I grew up at the intersection Chinese & American culture in the 90s. We didn’t really prioritize emotional intelligence at that time and discouraged an intimate relationship with our body’s own innate wisdom. Appearance, image, outward metrics of success - I was trained to strive for those things. The stories in here will share how I stumbled into learning how to listen to the quiet language of my own body and how I learned to value the wildly insightful intelligence of my own emotions. How I learned to stop self-loathing and truly become my own best friend. How I stopped trying to earn love & learned to be still.
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Who am I?
I like to think that I am kind of funny, and my one smash hit performance at The Funny Women Fest in Los Angeles confirmed that internal bias. I also won a Moth Storyslam competition and performed in a Grandslam. Unfortunately, the story I chose to tell at the Grandslam about my VERY EXCRUCIATING existential crisis triggered by a truly disturbing passage in the bible lost to some white dude’s story about the nice people he met while biking through Europe. Go figure.
I am also a licensed clinical social worker (aka, a therapist), a former high school English teacher, and have several videos that have hit over 10k on Instagram @iamjuniperwong.
I think these are all my tangible accomplishments. Oh wait! I’ve also been promoted to clinical supervisor before. That was my first and only promotion lol. I’m more horizontally ambitious than vertically ambitious, and yes, that can also be an innuendo.
I am also a human being whose intrinsic value is not tied to their achievements, etc.
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