The Professionals

Sam Y. Lee, LPC

Therapeutic Approach and Specialties
I have been a psychotherapist for eighteen years, providing various modalities of treatment for people in times of their needs. My therapeutic approach includes a combination of techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Family Systems Therapy, trauma recovery, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) among others. I am a pathfinder and a trail guide in the maze of life’s situations for individuals, couples and families in the journey of life. I love helping couples in various situations to rediscover, reconnect and rebuild themselves and with each other. I have worked with clients with depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, addictive lifestyles, ADHD, career and life transitions, active and retired military personnel and families, grief and loss, spiritual search and pursuit of one’s meaning of existence. I also have extensive experience working with clients who wish to integrate Christian principles in therapy.

Education and Career
I was born in South Korea, came to Virginia in my teen years, became a citizen of the United States and have lived in Virginia ever since. I graduated from Virginia Tech with an Engineering degree and worked as an engineering professional serving major automotive and other companies in the world. I have answered a new calling in my life and got a MA degree in Counseling at Regent University and hold licensure in Virginia as a Licensed Professional Counselor. I worked for eight years at the Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center, serving children, adolescents and adults with wide-ranging mental and emotional disorders. I have worked eleven years in outpatient practices and helped individuals and couples in their trauma experience recovery and relationship improvement.

Multicultural Perspective and Approach
l love to travel, enjoy the world’s cuisines, sushi and barbecue, love to read about history and what makes people tick, running and nature walks, and growing colorful chorus of blooms in my garden. Born and having lived in the Far East, and then transitioned as a “1.5 generation”, I bring full cultural heritage and unique understanding of Asian family dynamics and cross-cultural/generational life. I offer the best of both worlds at several levels, of Eastern and Western cultures and worldviews, of non-native and fully integrated lifestyles, and of technological and psychological careers. Clients with technical job/career or dispositions always are delighted to find that I speak their ‘language’. I integrate mindfulness and meditation with cognitive-behavioral restructuring. I understand the role of spirituality in healing and recovery, and am willing to explore how to enlist the power of faith with clients who wish spiritual integration in therapy. I believe that life is like a journey on a ship in a sea of beauty and peace, rocks and storms, mysteries of the deep, and the winds of all seasons. And I have been sailing in the ocean journey of Life and pulling aside the fellow travelers to share the adventures, travails, and joyful laughter for a season or more.

Come, the weary and burdened… and together, let’s find a new course in our journeys….