Ryan Tan

I work with people who are exhausted by trying to be "enough." You might look successful on the outside, but inside there's anxiety, hollowness, or a quiet sense that something’s missing. You achieve things and feel nothing. You fix one problem and another appears. The cycle doesn't end.

Most of us spend our lives convinced that peace and belonging are somewhere ahead—that if we just work hard enough, prove enough, fix enough, we'll finally arrive. But what if that's the problem? What if the trying itself is what keeps us suffering?

I believe that beneath the anxiety and the constant effort to prove yourself, there's something you already know but have long forgotten: a sense of being fundamentally okay. Not because you've earned it, but because it's already true. Therapy is about remembering that. It's about coming home to yourself.

My approach draws from Internal Family Systems (IFS), mindfulness, and psychodynamic theory, but it's grounded in something simpler: the belief that real healing isn't about becoming someone new. It's about clearing away what's in the way of who you already are. In our work together, we'll address the root causes—unresolved trauma, the weight of the past, the parts of you that believe your worth must be earned. Not to fix you, but to help you see clearly. This is a space where you don't have to prove anything. Where you can finally stop trying so hard.

I hold a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, where my studies spanned Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and Computer Science. I bring particular insight to the challenges faced by creatives, men, and Asian-American/BIPOC individuals navigating identity and purpose. My background as a theater director and immersive Zen meditation training in Taiwan deeply inform my presence in the therapy room.