Today we’d like to introduce you to May Han.
Hi May, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was 21 when I moved from China to the United States.
I came with a genuine curiosity about people—why we connect the way we do, why relationships can be so hard, and what it takes to really understand another person. Growing up, my parents separated when I was young, and I think that experience quietly shaped my interest in relationships. I didn’t have the words for it at the time, but it stayed with me.
Studying psychology in the U.S. felt like a natural next step. I enrolled in Northwestern University’s graduate program and trained as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I was the only international student in my program year, which meant navigating a new culture at the same time I was learning the craft of therapy. It wasn’t always easy, but it gave me a perspective I wouldn’t trade.
After nearly a decade of clinical work, I founded Spark Relational Counseling. The name felt right—a spark is small, but it’s where things begin. From my very first session, my hope has been to help people find a new way of relating to themselves and to the people they love.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building this practice has involved a lot of the same things I encourage my clients to practice: slowing down, staying honest with myself, and learning to trust my own judgment.
In my early years in the U.S., I often questioned whether I belonged in this field. Therapy depends so much on language and nuance, and I was doing that work in my second language, in a culture I was still getting to know. I wondered whether I was picking up on the right things, whether I understood enough of the cultural context to be genuinely helpful.
Over time, I came to see that my experience as an immigrant—knowing what it’s like to feel out of place, to hold two different cultural identities at once—actually helped me connect more deeply with clients who carried similar experiences. It made me a more thoughtful listener.
Being a female business owner brought its own set of challenges. There’s a quiet pressure that comes with running a practice as a woman—to find the right balance between warmth and authority, between being personable and being taken seriously. I’ve had to work through a lot of that in real time. It’s been a learning process, and an honest one.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Spark Relational Counseling is a virtual therapy practice serving clients across Oregon, Washington, and Illinois. We specialize in couples and marriage counseling, multicultural counseling, counseling for dating and intimacy, and support for high achievers and entrepreneurs.
The core belief behind our work is that healing happens through relationship. That includes the relationship between a client and their partner, yes—but also the relationship between a client and their therapist. When that foundation feels safe and trustworthy, people tend to open up in ways they haven’t before, and real change becomes possible.
Our approach is mindfulness-based and experiential. In practice, that means helping clients slow down enough to actually notice what they’re feeling—not just talk about it in the abstract—and then work with those feelings in an honest, supported way. We call these corrective emotional experiences: moments where something shifts, even just a little, and a new pattern begins to take hold.
We work with a wide range of clients, and inclusivity is central to who we are. Spark Relational Counseling is a fully affirming practice welcoming BIPOC clients, immigrants and adult children of immigrants, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people in kink, poly, and open relationships, and professionals navigating high-pressure lives. A lot of our clients have spent years feeling like they had to present a curated version of themselves in therapy. We’d like that to feel unnecessary here.
I’ve also served as Chair of the DEI community within the Alumni Advisory Board of the Family Institute at Northwestern University, and our work has been featured in HuffPost, Authority Magazine, PsychCentral, and Anise Health. Those things matter, but what I find most meaningful is simpler—it’s when a client feels genuinely heard, maybe for the first time. That’s what keeps me in this work.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
There is a memory I return to often—a warm afternoon in a park in China. My mom had packed a picnic, the way she sometimes did, and we spread a blanket out on the grass. I remember the wind on my face. I remember lying with my head in her lap, looking up at the sky through the trees. I remember crawling through the grass, inspecting little bugs, following them with the focused, fearless curiosity that only a child can sustain. At some point, we got on a small boat and drifted across the water, and I remember the stillness of it—the way the world seemed to pause.
My mother and her side of the family were my greatest source of warmth growing up. They were my secure base. And I believe, looking back, that having that foundation—even amidst the harder parts of my childhood—is part of what drew me toward this work. I know what it feels like to be held. And I know that not everyone has had that experience. Part of what I offer my clients is the chance to build it, sometimes for the very first time.
That little girl lying in the grass, feeling the wind, safe in her mother’s presence—she is still with me. In every session I hold, I am trying, in some small way, to offer another person that same feeling.
That feeling of being okay. Of being enough. Of being home.
Pricing:
- Individual sessions $160-240/50 mins
- Couples sessions $240-$320/75 mins
- AAMFT approved Supervision 200/50 mins
- Career development Consultation $300/50 mins
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spark-counseling.com
