Bella (SoYoung) Park, MA, Mental Health Clinician

Bella (she/her) is a master level therapist at Joy.

Bella (she/her) is a master level therapist at Joy Mental Fitness, which has locations in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Boston, Massachusetts. Bella also provides telehealth services to patients throughout New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Bella is bilingual, proficient in both English and Korean.

Personal Journey

Everyone’s goal in therapy is different. Even if we enter our first session with a goal, it might change throughout time.

My first goal in therapy was to find my identity. To me, this meant being comfortable living in between social norms and expectations: finding comfort with not being Korean enough and not American enough, working on heavy “guilt” toward family, friends, and my cultural origin while living as an international student, and working toward my internalized “isms” that were ingrained in me since I came to the US by myself in 7th grade. During the times when I was silenced, and watched others being silenced, I worked on my wounds by finding help from my therapist, maintaining a routine, and seeking a support system. And honestly, finding enjoyable things in life like good food, sleep, music, coffee, meditation, nature, and scrolling through cute cat posts and videos.

I hope to relate to clients who are also constantly seeking meaning between social norms and systemic injustice. What is it like to live as a BIPOC and as an individual from diverse immigration backgrounds in American society? What is it like to be raised by parents who no longer speak the languages you speak or fully understand the cultures you’ve been exposed to? How does it impact us when our identity is constantly being questioned and oppressed by those in power? These are the questions that I hope to address and process in our sessions.

As I naturally gear my attention to the relationship between an individual and society, I also hope to empower and bring light to the strength and beauty of unique identities and narratives clients hold. While I may never be able to fully understand what one’s life and experiences look like, I can speak emotions and feelings through curiosity and empathy: the feelings of betrayal, despair, grief, elation, or even emotions that simply cannot be contained in words.

Clinical Approach

My experience ranges from working with kids, young adults, and adults. In session, I ground myself in Person-Centered Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) through a multicultural and social-justice lens. At the end of the day, regardless of the theoretical orientations, my ultimate goal in therapy is to figure out what is best for the client. I trust more the relationship between the therapist and the client as a foundation for new experimentation and introspection – like a playground where we can try different activities that can only be performed in a trusting and vulnerable environment.

With this being said, my clinical approach ranges based on my client’s needs that may need support with trauma-informed care, grief therapy, relationship issues, and interpersonal issues, while also providing bilingual services in Korean and English. Moving forward, I hope to constantly learn and find new and different approaches for the clients, if the approaches I already know don't work.

Just like many things in life, therapy is also a trial and error: we will try, learn, try again, and adjust. I want to acknowledge the courage to start and for allowing me to join the ride. Just like what other clinicians at Joy said, ‘Therapists are passengers in client’s cars’ – meaning, therapy is a work of collaboration between therapists navigating the direction, and clients driving the car. It won’t happen in a set time, and the work is definitely easier said than done, but during our journey, I humbly ask for vulnerability, honesty, and a willingness to try new tasks with me :)