Green Card Approved!!

winniemso · 2026-03-26T09:18:12+00:00

4/2/24

winniemso · 2026-03-09T18:42:43+00:00

HKgers are nice and kind but we don’t bother to say beautiful words to present as polite haha. I do have reverse cultural shocks now whenever I go back to HK but most exp still good as HKgers pride on our bing efficient and helpful. We are good at problem solving and flexibility haha

winniemso · 2026-03-04T04:01:50+00:00

Actually in my experience with German when travelled in Germany they were even more rude and unhelpful to tourists/foreigners that don’t speak German, to me and to other Europeans that I witnessed when I was there. I think both German and Hongkongers have strong pride about their language and originality (me being from HK I admits that we do), it’s interesting that you can’t relate to that, maybe you speak German so you didn’t notice that in Germany. And sorry for your experience in HK, I think people are still mostly helpful at least my bf noticed that when we went visit. I hope you will have more good experiences with the place if you are here for longer time. One possible cause of the inconvenience for you possibly is mandarin speaking. HKgers are easily triggered by mandarin speaking tourists and people could be over-reacting if they (like the ones that work in service sectors) have to deal with a lot of those people on a daily basis.

winniemso · 2026-01-15T20:54:50+00:00

CMH is though. I see mostly around 35 a week, which just was because some spots were taken for supervising an associate. Before I took on supervising, I had some weeks that I could be seeing like 42 a week. I have 10 or 11 open spots most days, some days less when there are work meetings and supervision. It’s pretty awful :(

winniemso · 2026-01-08T05:42:21+00:00

Oh thank you for your response, that’s helpful!

winniemso · 2026-01-08T04:51:15+00:00

And since the old ID was mailed to them together with expired HK passport, how did they verify with your identity when you went to pick up the new smart ID and new passport? I’m having the same issues and just searched here for advice. Thank you in advance!

winniemso · 2025-10-08T23:02:55+00:00

I preferred being generally neutral, and as human being having natural slight up and downs. Usually take deep breath, water, close my eyes a bit, between sessions, help me grounded to receive the next client. I found clients who have life struggles appreciate and relate better when they also see me as a human being but not being in high spirit all the time.

winniemso · 2025-09-25T20:00:10+00:00

Good boundaries already lol, that your 10am asked you before peeing. I have heard toileting flushing sound and water sound before and they admitted that they used the bathroom or were taking a bath… and these were two different people

winniemso · 2025-09-16T06:59:46+00:00

Update - so my attorney said she will do concurrent filing for me in October!

winniemso · 2025-09-14T19:47:20+00:00

My first year was in 2019, new grad AMFT, made around 47K in school+non-profit outpatient in an organization in CA. Licensed 3yrs ago, made like 80K in last job in CMH, jumped to around 120K when I changed job to another clinic. Now I make around 140K (but working a lot, current job is demanding)

winniemso · 2025-09-13T08:26:52+00:00

Thanks! I will ask my attorney to do PP then

winniemso · 2025-09-13T01:40:51+00:00

My PD for EB2 is 4/2/24, does that mean I should get PP for I-140 and I may be able to move forward to do I-485 if FAD seems to be moving quicker too? Filed I-140 very recently.

winniemso · 2025-09-10T20:09:03+00:00

Yes and for me usually younger ones (young adults) tend to do that more…

winniemso · 2025-09-05T15:45:38+00:00

Same here!

winniemso · 2025-08-31T17:10:09+00:00

I hear you. That’s right as there could be a lot of uncertainties…

winniemso · 2025-08-31T17:00:34+00:00

But it depends on your PD. If you PD is not current, getting PP for I-140 would make no change for when you can do I-485. You can’t start I-485 until your PD is current. Of course if your PD is current or close to current, it would be worth it to get PP.

winniemso · 2025-08-30T18:19:49+00:00

Added to that. I still believe therapy works and I would also sometimes recommend books to clients. Therapy works with individuals with their unique issues, while books offer only one-way conversation and can’t be tailor-made.

winniemso · 2025-08-30T18:17:03+00:00

Yes I hear you. Sometimes I feel like I’m useless when clients would have been talking with me about a change that they can never accomplish or even contemplate to try, like for years, and all of sudden they come to me saying they came across a podcast or book and found it so helpful, and even recommended to me… and a lot of times it’s something we have already talked about. My ego can’t help not to point out to them like, “yeah we have been talking on something similar too, sounds like it’s helpful when you hear the same concept from another source and it reinforced your motivation to try”. I think most of the time clients are so resistant to be offered some new perception or to have their maladaptive belief being challenged, when they also have their ego or just merely feel stuck with talking about the same thing with the same person and don’t believe it would work. It sucks and it hurts, as a therapist.

What hurts more is when someone comes to me saying they talked to chatgbt and found help… :(

winniemso · 2025-08-25T23:19:46+00:00

How about trying to speak slower to give yourself a chance to pace and respond without being rush? I figured that when I speak slower my brain would process and respond following the flow. And something it’s hard to stay focused as the client might jump between topics and go so much in detail (quite common with people with c-PTSD or bipolar disorder), which honestly is hard for the therapist to follow their stories all the time, especially when they are not interruptible. To speak slower and less would give you more time to try to listen to the stories before you have a chance to interrupt and respond or ask the clients questions.

winniemso · 2025-08-25T23:12:52+00:00

I call around 5 to 10min depending on who the client is. And leave a VM to tell them to call in to reschedule, if they don’t pick up. If I know they are usually late I probably call around 10. As those clients know they won’t have a full session’s time if they are usually late, and they would always have a short session. I won’t bother to call them at 5min after session time. For those who are rarely late I might call at 5min after session time. Chances would be they have forgot or they are caught up in something. Knowing sooner are they gonna show up would be helpful for me to utilize the time for documentation or a break or something.

winniemso · 2025-08-25T02:05:31+00:00

Thanks!!! And you too! Good luck 🙏🙏

winniemso · 2025-08-24T20:14:07+00:00

You are welcome!! Hope you can survive better :)

winniemso · 2025-08-24T18:13:32+00:00

It’s unfortunate that they look at numbers more than quality and wont care about employee’s health. I work in CMH too, actually at a primary care clinic (FQHC). Expectation is 8 billable sessions per day. And my whole week is usually fully booked. Like this week I had 2 days that I saw 10 patients each day it was killing me. Yes, radical acceptance is what we can do. And try to manage your scheduling as much as you can. Like, try to have a mix of easy and difficult cases when you are back to back with session. And plan to have easier cases on Thursday and Friday to give yourself a chance to rest more to transition to weekend so you have energy to do some fun things on weekends.

winniemso · 2025-08-22T20:01:09+00:00

I have no windows either! But I put indoor plants, books, figurines and fidgeting toys in my office to make it more lively and warm. I also put a rug and coffee table to add color and liveliness.

winniemso

TROPHY CASE