Liz Tong, MPH, LMFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Therapist & Clinical Director
License #49742
How I Can Help
I help people who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected from themselves. You may understand intellectually why you struggle and still find yourself repeating the same patterns—putting pressure on yourself, doubting your needs, shutting down in relationships, or carrying pain that has never fully resolved.
Therapy offers a place to slow down and become curious about what is happening beneath the surface. Rather than simply trying to make difficult feelings disappear, we’ll explore the experiences and coping strategies that shaped you, including the ones that may once have protected you but now contribute to your suffering. Together, we can help you develop greater self-understanding, emotional freedom, and trust in yourself.
I aim to create a warm and caring space where you can speak honestly without shame or judgment. I’ll meet you where you are—whether you’re navigating a crisis or transition, struggling in a relationship, experiencing anxiety or depression, healing from trauma, or wanting to understand yourself more deeply.
Licensed & Experienced
I bring 20 years of clinical experience, advanced training in trauma and couples therapy, and genuine care to every session. I hold a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a Master of Public Health from Yale University. This background shapes my understanding of the whole person: your inner world, relationships, history, identity, culture, and the larger systems affecting your life.
As a therapist and the Clinical Director of DOT Center, I remain actively engaged in advanced training, current trauma and attachment research, and ongoing consultation with senior clinicians.
What drives my work is a deep belief that when one person finds peace within themselves, it ripples outward into their relationships, their families, and their communities. In those moments, the world becomes more at peace as well.
EDUCATION & WORK BACKGROUND
California Institute of Integral Studies - MA in Integral Counseling Psychology
Yale University - MPH in Health Policy & Administration
University of Rochester - BA in Health & Society
Integral Counseling Center (San Francisco)
College of San Mateo, Health & Psychological Services
Asian Community Mental Health Services
Aids Healthcare Foundation
The Well Clinic San Francisco
My Specialties
Life sometimes brings us to a crossroads where familiar ways of coping no longer work and something new needs to emerge. I specialize in helping people navigate these moments with greater clarity and self-compassion.
I have a particular passion for helping people heal from earlier trauma and attachment wounds, develop self-esteem that comes from within, and become less governed by shame, fear, or the expectations of others. My approach is especially attuned to the ways culture, family, race, identity, and belonging shape our understanding of who we are and who we are allowed to become.
I also have advanced training and extensive experience as a couples therapist. I work with couples who want to understand the deeper emotional and attachment patterns beneath their conflicts and build a more secure, honest, and connected relationship. I have particular expertise working with interracial and intercultural couples, whose relationships may involve complex layers of culture, identity, family, and belonging.
I help individuals and couples with:
Self-Esteem and self criticism
Anxiety and depression
Trauma and attachment wounds
Life purpose and major transitions
Cultural and identity concerns
Career changes
Grief and loss
Breakups and divorce
New Partnerships and Marriages
Premarital Counseling
Interracial Couples Therapy
Pregnancy, postpartum, and becoming new parents
My Style
My style is warm, attentive, and engaged. I believe that being deeply heard and understood can help you develop greater self-trust and a more grounded sense of your own worth. I listen not only to what you say, but also to the feelings, patterns, and parts of your experience that may be harder to put into words.
You don’t need to have everything figured out or know exactly what to say. All you need is a willingness to show up, look inward, and approach yourself with curiosity.
What We’ll Do
I’ll invite you to talk about whatever is on your mind or weighing on you. At times, I may offer reflections, ask questions, or help you make sense of experiences that feel confusing or overwhelming. At other times, I may sit quietly with you, allowing space for you to slow down, listen inwardly, and discover what emerges.
Together, we’ll explore the beliefs, emotional patterns, and ways of coping that have shaped your life. We may consider where they began, how they once helped you, and whether they are still serving you now. We may also pay attention to what happens in your body, in your relationships, or between us in the therapy room. These moments can offer important insight into how you protect yourself, connect with others, and respond when you feel vulnerable.
My goal is to help you feel less burdened and alone, become more accepting of your full emotional experience, and live with a stronger sense of agency and connection to yourself.
The Invitation
When life feels most challenging, it can become an opportunity to find deeper resources within yourself. Therapy can offer a place to turn toward what you are experiencing with greater understanding, discover new possibilities, and reconnect with what feels most true to you.
As your therapist, I will meet you with genuine presence, respect, curiosity, and psychological insight. I look forward to speaking with you.
SPECIALIZED TRAINING
Integral Psychology: integrating your whole being - mind, body, heart, spirit, & cultural context.
Psychodynamic Therapy: explores how past experiences and unconscious patterns shape current feelings, behaviors, and relationships, using the client-therapist relationship as a space for insight & growth.
EMDR: (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing): an effective modality for working with trauma (and other stuck emotions) which can sometimes be a helpful supplement with talk-therapy.
Psychoanalytic Couples Therapy: helps partners identify unconscious dynamics & emotional patterns, fostering deeper insight, emotional growth, and more authentic, compassionate connection.
PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy): utilizes attachment theory, focusing in on moment-to-moment shifts in one's face, body, and voice. Helping partners learn to better understand and attune to each other to create a safer/secure attachment as well as address the effects of attachment threats.
EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy): teaches couples how to deescalate from conflicts and explore the underlying feelings that keep them stuck in negative patterns of interaction.