Peter Chan, Psy.D.

In my experience, it is important for my clients to feel supported and be able to address their immediate concerns as quickly and as effectively as possible. I view therapy as a collaborative process where I work with my clients to acquire the coping skills they need for their present difficulties while gaining the understanding and insight they need to handle future challenges. By working together, I will help you to build on your strengths and expand your skills to not only cope with the obstacles in life, but to optimize your well-being and to reach for your full potential. I am deeply confident in your ability to create a life rich with authenticity, meaning, insight, and connection! My approach is warm, genuine, and nonjudgmental. Since everyone is unique, the therapeutic process with each of my clients is different and the way we work together is tailored to your specific needs. However, my goal is to create a safe space where your stories can be told and your thoughts & feelings explored. I will support you through your journey of introspection and help you gain new perspectives and understanding of yourself. I will guide you to identify your obstacles but also gently challenge you to make the changes you need to breakthrough old patterns.

In my practice, I help individuals and couples overcome a wide range of concerns, including depression, anxiety, stress, relationship problems, communication difficulties, low self-esteem, loss, life transitions, acculturation, multiculturalism, sexuality, coming out, and others. I have extensive experience working with entrepreneurs and professionals in highly demanding career fields, San Francisco transplants, recent immigrants, as well as members of the LGBTQ and Asian communities. I provide psychotherapy that is culturally competent with particular sensitivity around cultural differences. I help to enhance my clients' understanding of their culture and the impact it has on how they view their world and interact with others around them.

In today's fast-paced society, the purpose of psychotherapy is often synonymous with symptom reduction. While there is absolute merit and need to help someone to relieve their symptoms and deal with their present difficulties, this prescription can influence one's expectations of the process and purpose of psychotherapy before one even begins. It can limit the creative use of psychotherapy and thereby affect what one can gain through the therapeutic process. I believe that the purpose of psychotherapy can be very different for each individual. Since everyone is unique, how one chooses to utilize his or her time with the therapist can be vastly different. For some, they seek to alleviate their symptoms. For others, they wish to learn coping skills to help them prepare for future challenges. While there are some who use psychotherapy to better understand their unconscious processes and deep-seated motivation, there are others who simply want a space for them to feel safe and share their stories. Ultimately, I believe the common element amongst these seemingly different purposes to therapy is to affect change. When we work together, I will support you to achieve the changes you seek. Whether they are changes that are concrete and observable like getting a job or losing weight; or something more intangible such as a better understanding of the cause of your depression or a deeper sense of connectedness to your identity.

I see therapy is a collaborative process between us. My role as a therapist isn't to dictate the journey you take in the course of psychotherapy but as a companion on whichever path you choose to explore. While the paths chosen may be different for everyone, my goal is to support you and to facilitate changes within you. Changes that can enrich your life, improve your overall well-being and help you reach your full potential.