About Sungshim Park Loppnow
I have been engaging in the work of healing for over 22 years. It started in the form of pastoral counseling while in Korea in 1996 and in 1999, I came to the States to study MFT (Marriage and Family Therapy). Since then, I have continued to enhance my skills as a psychotherapist studying system’s theory, attachment, trauma resolution, and brain-based relationship skills. I have witnessed many people’s emotional, relational, and spiritual suffering as well as experiencing my own pain. I have come to understand that this type of suffering results from a lack of capacity to metabolize pain that yields compassion, wisdom, and strength. Our inability to transform pain into wisdom is not only our individual irresponsibility, but also the lack in our communities (marriage, family, churches, and society). While I am able to accurately assess the presenting problems, I am also passionate and skilled in helping people grow their capacity for transformation, in order for them to become an agent of blessing.
I am adept at bridging gaps in interpersonal relationships, especially because I have had to work through my own experiences of living in two cultures, Korea and America, as well as being in an interracial marriage that requires its own set of skills.
I am confident that you will feel welcomed and accepted since I, myself have been on the other side of the “couch”. I also know that my practical wisdom will lead to hope and you might even become excited about the possibility of your transformation because I have also been there.
Reach out to me today! You will be pleasantly surprised by the goodness that is still prevailing in this world.
If you are interested in knowing more about what shaped me, you are invited to continue reading:
When my daughter was 8 years old, she asked me this question: “Mom! Don’t you sometimes wonder why our eyes on our own face never get to see ourselves?” I found her question to be profound and powerful. I believe our identity (how we see ourselves) is found and formed in the eyes that have seen us throughout our lives. Who I am as a psychotherapist can be understood in the same vein; what I love studying and mostly whom I loved studying from have shaped who I am as a psychotherapist.
The professors who taught me System’s theory and Emotional Focused Therapy during my MFT years shaped me to understand the problem systemically as well as to ‘treat’ the connection between people, not only ‘teach communication skills'.
Teachers of interpersonal neurobiology (mind-body-human interactions shaping one’s well-being), as well as trauma resolution work (EMDR), helped me to treat not only the mind to think right, but also the body to experience peace as well as the relationships to be mutually satisfying.
Thrive trainers who equipped me with brain-based relationship skills have given me practical skills to help people reset their base as joy and peace, to return to it whenever de-centered, and to restore one’s unshakable identity as the beloved.
Teachers I met during my spiritual direction program have trained me to hold and honor your spiritual journey as sacred if you are questioning and wondering about your spirituality.
I enjoy working with couples, families, and individuals with trauma histories that have caused great suffering resulting in unregulated anger, anxiety, and ambition.