Jennifer Ayako Lee(she/her)

Hi, I'm Jenn! As a certified coach with 23+ years experience, a Certified Trauma Care Practitioner, a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and a complex trauma survivor, I offer a compassionate, supportive space to help you live your most embodied, authentic and liberated life. I have a special affinity for working with BIPOC, especially folks of Asian descent, and other marginalized people, empaths, creatives and activists who have experienced systemic oppression and racialized trauma, intergenerational trauma, cultural trauma, developmental trauma, attachment trauma and emotional neglect.

I’m a Japanese/Chinese-American Yonsei (4th generation) descendant of Japanese-Americans who were unjustly mass incarcerated by the U.S. government during WWII simply for having the “face of the enemy.” Silence and assimilation kept us “safe” but left lasting imprints of intergenerational trauma. Part of my healing journey includes divesting from my “model minority” conditioning and learning how to use my voice and take a stand.

I love working with BIPOC creatives, empaths and activists who are committed to individual + collaborative liberation. So, all you (recovering) perfectionists/workaholics/people-pleasers as well as misfits/free spirits/(aspiring) unconventional folks wanting to make the world a better place, you’re in the right place! I’d love to support you!

And, hey, if you’re in the Asian diaspora, I know we’re not a monolith but I especially get what it’s like to be invisiblized and pigeonholed by the Model Minority Myth. I’m here for you!

Prior to doing my own coaching practice full-time, I consulted for ten years at Fortune 500 companies helping leaders and organizations implement and manage change while I coached on the side. I left my corporate job in 2007 and I spent several years coaching creative entrepreneurs globally. During that time I also wrote two books The Right-Brain Business Plan which has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world grow their business authentically and creatively and the follow-up book Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way.

Now, through trauma recovery coaching and Somatic Experiencing®, I focus on the root of what's getting in the way of folks living their most authentic, fulfilling and liberated life and helping people heal from their trauma and adaptive survival strategies that are no longer serving them.

I believe in the healing powers of compassion, creativity, humor, deep listening, presence, nature, body wisdom, joy and slowing down, all of which are radical acts in the face of systems of oppression and racialized capitalism. I also believe that so much of the world’s violence, oppression, greed and delusion are rooted in collective cycles of unresolved trauma and that no one is free until we all are free.

That’s why I’m passionate about supporting people, especially racialized folks and folks with marginalized identities, to find freedom from our trauma and from dominant culture conditioning so that we can live our most liberated and authentic lives. Through my trauma-informed somatic coaching offerings you’ll build the essential skills of being present to your felt experience, tending to your nervous system, connecting to your inner knowing, releasing trauma stored in your tissues, increasing access to your innate body wisdom and growing your ability to navigate life’s challenges (including dominant culture BS).

My holistic approach includes Somatic Experiencing®, internal parts work, expressive arts, mindfulness meditation and Buddhist psychology principles, NVC and embodiment/yoga/movement practices. I’m committed to bringing a decolonized, social justice, anti-oppression and anti-carceral lens to my coaching practice and I strive to share with my clients politicized psychoeducation that acknowledges the harmful ways systemic oppression impacts all aspects of our lives.

Trauma often robs us of autonomy, agency and consent, so it’s important for me to honor your choice and voice in our coaching relationship. We will intentionally co-design how we work together and sessions are tailored to your needs and goals and are always client-led. You are the expert in your own life and lived experience and my role is to support you in your own unique process of self-discovery.

I’d be so honored to accompany you on your healing and transformational journey!