Noticing feelings that are suppressed, avoided, or hard to name.
In therapy, emotion is not simply something to remove quickly; it is an entry point for understanding how distress forms.
Yufei Li Personal Site
Yufei Li Psychotherapist
I completed my master's training in Mental Health Counseling at Teachers College, Columbia University. I also received clinical counseling training at the Fordham University Counseling Center. I am the founder and lead of the Tongxinwu public-interest psychological support project under the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of China (CCCF). I currently work as a psychotherapist in the psychiatry department of a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou. My clinical work is grounded in short-term psychodynamic therapy, with attention to emotional distress, relational patterns, psychosomatic stress, and personal growth.
Education
Master's Training in Counseling
Clinical Work
Hospital Psychotherapist
Orientation
Short-term Psychodynamic
Practice
500h+ Cases / 250h+ Supervision
01 / Approach
Centered on short-term psychodynamic work, using the therapeutic relationship to re-enact and work through maladaptive interpersonal patterns.
I work with clients to identify the most urgent focus in the present moment and to understand how emotion, relational patterns, defenses, and inner conflict become intertwined. This way of working values depth, time boundaries, and changes that can gradually become visible.
Short-term Psychodynamic
Focusing on recurrent distress in the present
Understanding how self-protection can be useful in the short term and limiting over time.
We look together at how certain protective strategies once helped, and how they may now keep a person stuck.
Seeing the tension among desire, fear, and external pressure.
The work focuses on recurring inner tensions that are difficult to move through, rather than expanding endlessly.
Understanding repeated relational patterns within lived experience.
Relational patterns are explored in concrete contexts, including intimate relationships, family, and the therapeutic relationship itself.
02 / Pathway
Finding my initial helping intention in public-interest work, then bringing psychotherapy training back into nonprofit and clinical settings.
My first sustained contact with patients and families came through public-interest work, where I began to clarify my interest in helping relationships. I later studied counseling psychology overseas, brought that training back to a foundation serving people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and entered hospital psychiatry to practice psychotherapy within a clinical system.
Through CCCF volunteer service and summer-camp psychological support, I encountered the lived realities of patients and families and confirmed my interest in psychological helping.
I completed systematic training in psychology and philosophy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
I completed a master's program in counseling psychology at Columbia University and received clinical training at the Fordham University Counseling Center.
I brought my training back to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of China (CCCF), founded the Tongxinwu psychological support project, recruited like-minded collaborators, and helped bring professional counseling to IBD patients across China.
I currently engage in psychotherapy, group therapy, psychological assessment, physical treatment, and related clinical work.
03 / Experience
01 / Overseas Training
Learning to understand a person across cultures.
I completed a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling at Teachers College, Columbia University, and received bilingual and cross-cultural clinical training at the Fordham University Counseling Center. My overseas experience is not only an educational background; it also shaped my sensitivity to identity, culture, relationships, and modes of expression.
02 / Hospital Practice
Doing everyday clinical work in a hospital setting.
I currently work in the psychiatry department of a tertiary hospital, participating in psychotherapy, group therapy, psychological assessment, physical treatment, and related clinical work. The hospital setting keeps psychological work situated within a broader medical and risk-management frame, rather than only in abstract discussion.
03 / Public-interest Work
Founding and leading a public-interest psychological support project.
I joined CCCF as a volunteer in 2017 and later participated in the summer-camp psychological support team. That early volunteer work became my starting point in psychological helping. Later, I brought my psychotherapy training back to the foundation and founded and led the Tongxinwu 1v1 Counseling Project, which has gradually become one of the foundation's important psychological support programs and a relatively systematic, professionally grounded counseling service within China's nonprofit sector.
Participants People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), adolescent patients, and their families.
Service Forms Public-interest 1v1 counseling, support groups, summer-camp group support, psychoeducation, and crisis-response materials.
My Role Founder and project lead, organizing counselors, supervisors, and volunteers to sustain long-term psychological support.
04 / Contact
For collaboration, projects, or professional exchange, please contact me by phone or email.
This personal website is mainly used to present my professional background, training pathway, and
public-interest practice. If you would like to discuss nonprofit projects, professional collaboration,
content co-creation, or related exchange, you are welcome to contact me by phone or email.
I am not currently recruiting individual clients through this website.