My Journey on Psychoanalysis

Xiaofeng is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker located on the UES of Manhattan. She has a particular expertise in helping individuals navigate relationship conflicts, intimacy issues, commitment struggles, immigration challenges and career transitions. She is interested in working with teenagers, women, international students, and clients who are affected by family members with severe mental health. Having spent many years at Bellevue Hospital Center's Psychiatric Unit, she has developed a keen understanding of the complexities faced by clients with severe mental illnesses and the impact on their families.

She became interested in psychoanalysis long before she started training at the American Institute for Psychoanalysis (AIP) in New York. While working in an international agricultural business in Shanghai(China) for about a decade, she found opportunities to receive training in psychoanalysis, be certified as a psychotherapist in Shanghai, attend the Tavistock Approach Infant Observation program, and get psychodynamic group therapy training and Yalom Group therapy training. She has also volunteered in many mental health programs over the years. She was deeply interested in psychoanalysis and inspired by the psychoanalysts who taught us.  As a result, she gave up my lucrative career in business and emigrated to the United States to become a psychoanalyst supported and encouraged by my teachers and mentors who believed in her in 2018.

Once in New York City (NYC), she went to Hunter College where she studied in the English as Second Language(ESL) program. Following that she went to Stony Brook University and got an MSW degree, officially becoming a psychoanalytic candidate at AIP. She has been working at Bellevue Hospital Center Psychiatric Unit for more than 3 years, trying to apply psychoanalytic principles to her severely damaged patients with the help of her Mentor and supervisor. She has continued her personal analysis for over 10 years, as she continues to understand herself and her patients. She has

Not only does she care about her clients and psychoanalysis, but she also cares about her psychoanalytic community. She has been dedicated to utilizing her skills in business and psychoanalysis to serve multiple leadership roles in her community.

She has served on the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) Candidates Council as Treasurer from 2023 to 2025. Since 2023, she has been a member of the APF (American Psychoanalytic Foundation), which supports programs that promote psychoanalysis to broader communities. In 2025, she was honored to serve as Vice President Elect for the North America Region at the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO), an international organization for in-training from International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) institutes. She values the opportunity to work with colleagues who share the same passion and enjoys working on the programs that matter most to psychoanalytic in-training and supports the community to grow.