Ivy Kwong is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, spiritual counselor, speaker, and writer who offers affirming, culturally-sensitive psychotherapy and coaching for individuals and couples. Her practice, Bare Ivy is collaborative and holistic, focusing on healing and helping clients to create their most vibrant lives.
Story
Ivy Kwong carries a lifetime of experience navigating personal exploration, growth, and identity as a first generation American woman. Her practice focuses on marriage and family therapy, sex and intimacy, reconnecting with the body, behavioral addictions and codependency, healing core trauma, finding purpose, and spiritual counseling. Her approach is affirming, collaborative, and sensitive to diverse backgrounds, identities and experiences. “It’s a lot about helping people open to healing in a different way than what might be traditionally practiced,” Ivy says.
Ivy’s parents are from Hong Kong and Macau, and met through an arranged marriage. Her father, the first to go to college in the history of his family, was an mechanical engineer at General Motors, and so Ivy grew up in conservative, predominantly white towns in Indiana and Michigan. “I was always the only minority growing up,” she remembers. After going into law to please her family, Ivy began volunteering on the side at a suicide prevention hotline to feel like she was contributing positively. “I realized, there’s so much pain and suffering in the world, and God knows I’ve experienced that,” she says. “What if I could do something to help alleviate that suffering?” Ivy’s parents were not impressed when she told them she was going to be a therapist. “That was a real turning point for me as a dutiful Asian daughter,” she says. “I wanted to make my parents proud, and I also knew I had to follow my own path and what was true for me.”
Ivy works with many different clients, but is particularly passionate about supporting those who often struggle to find emotional and spiritual support that understands and incorporates their diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences. She operates from a mental wellness model, rather than a mental illness model, and does not diagnose clients or give them goal-oriented treatment plans. “I am not the expert,” she says. “I’m here and I’m a mirror for you.” On her own long, winding, and she insists always ongoing, healing journey, Ivy is proud to have the opportunity to support people in their struggles. “It’s a gift and an honor to show people that it is possible to be understood, to be seen, and to feel safe to be all of who you are. To be granted access into people hearts and spirits... that’s why I’m here.”
Fun Fact
Ivy is an avid snowboarder and is currently working on her first children’s book!
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