About Elvina

I’m a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in relationship counseling. This usually means couples therapy, but I also help individuals move on from breakups as well as helping people regain their confidence in dating.

Currently, I am practicing in Pasadena, California. License # LMFT 51046. Alongside my private practice, I provide group supervision for trainees at Fuller Psychological and Family Services, helping to train the next generation of MFTs. I am also in the midst of finishing a Doctorate in Clinical Sexology. I have completed the coursework and have submitted my dissertation for consideration.

As for my background, I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. From ages 8 to 18, I grew up in Hong Kong, where I learned Cantonese as my second language. After finishing high school, I returned to California to attend college. I graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Psychology. For the two years between my undergrad and grad school, I worked in group homes as a direct caregiver to emotionally disturbed foster children and youth. In 2007, I received my Master’s degree in Counseling from Western Seminary, where I did additional studies in addiction as a trainee in two different treatment programs–Asian Family Institute in San Francisco, an outpatient program for gambling addicts and their families, and New Life Community Services in Santa Cruz, a residential drug and alcohol treatment center with both inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. While I am trained in the harm reduction model, my work in addiction treatment is based on the 12 Step model.

Prior to starting my own private practice, I worked in a wide range of settings and non-profits: a self-pay counseling center, community-based mental health services funded through Medi-Cal, court-mandated education and counseling services for DUI offenders, an aftercare program for at-risk youth coming out of juvenile hall, and an in-patient program for people in the mental health system.

In 2012, I started my own private practice in San Ramon, where I specialized in working with couples. While I greatly enjoy working with individuals as well as families, I find couples counseling to be my passion and calling in life, to help couples repair and improve their relationships.

Over the years I have volunteered for a wide variety of causes and non-profits: volunteering in free tutoring programs and children’s summer programs, raising awareness for mental health within the Bay Area’s Chinese community, volunteering in outreach and fundraising for a foster care agency Agape Villages. I was also a volunteer co-host of an on air Cantonese radio show about mental health and relationships from 2008 through 2014. After moving to Southern California, I volunteered as a CASA—Court Appointed Special Advocate—for foster children. CASAs serve as mentors and advocates for foster children who need extra support that their case workers are unable to provide. I was a CASA for 5 years and am currently taking a break, but plan to return to volunteering as a CASA later down the road.