Hatty J. Lee

Marriage & Family THERAPIST, foundeR, & Writer

I’m so glad you’re here.

My background

I’ve been doing this work for over twenty years, since long before I had a therapy practice. I started in nonprofit work within the foster care system, homeless shelters, underserved schools, and community mental health centers, investing in communities that felt close to home. I’m a Korean American woman and the child of immigrants, and I’ve navigated family violence, addiction, intergenerational and complex trauma in my own life. My lived experience and healing journey is where my passion for healing began.

As a first generation college and master’s degree graduate, I earned my M.S. in Marital and Family Therapy at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology and have been a marriage and family therapist (LMFT #83772) for 16 years. I’ve worked in child and family clinics, K-12 schools, and adult outpatient centers, with children, adults, couples, older adults, and families from many cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Across all of it, my aim has been the same: to bring understanding, hope, and healing intergenerationally to people carrying the weight of trauma and adversity.

My story

I do this work as someone who has done my own personal work in therapy over many years, and is still doing it. I’ve worked through complicated family dynamics, intergenerational trauma, religious trauma in Korean evangelical Christian spaces, the impact of being a woman of color in a patriarchal and racialized society, and highly enmeshed codependent relationships. I actively work in reclaiming my spirituality, nurturing my creative identity, and expanding my Asian American identity on my own terms. I’m still learning, including how to quiet the imposter voice as a founder and entrepreneur, and take care of my body and well-being.

For a long time, I lived in scarcity. I believed I had to keep earning, giving, and proving in order to be safe. I overextended myself, burned out, and stayed in relationships that took more from my giving than I received.

Then the birth of my first child nearly cost me my life over 11 years ago. The eighteen months of postpartum trauma that followed forced me to stop and ask what I actually wanted my life to hold. It was a long season that lead to profound transformation, and I didn’t rush it. What grew afterward was steadier than what came before: a life with more room, space for abundance and rest, expansion that went beyond my perceived limitations that enables me to empower others and make a meaningful impact on the people in my corner of the world and beyond.

Today, I’m breaking intergenerational trauma by working through the challenges of marriage and partnership with my husband for nearly 20 years, parenting three children with intention, recovering my relationships with my aging immigrant parents and siblings, reclaiming wealth as a resource that can support others, and embracing joy as a founder, entrepreneur, and creative within a hustle culture.

I carry these experiences and identities into every session today. I know what it’s like to be the strong one, and to need someone steady beside you while you learn another way to live.

my Work

For nearly seven years I worked in community mental health, and I believed in it. I also believed that real service meant sacrifice. I took pride in doing something noble for low pay as I barely made ends meet. I honestly thought private practice was for people who were greedy or selfish. I know many people who identify as helpers resonate with me.

I grew up a latchkey kid. My immigrant parents worked relentlessly to give us a life they never had growing up in a third world country, and I carry deep respect for that. What I didn’t see for a long time was that I was living out the same story: giving myself away for others and calling it love.

Becoming a mom changed that. I was running on empty with a young child at home, and I could no longer call it noble. I had also grown up watching entrepreneurship cost my family everything, so starting a business felt like betraying everything I’d been taught. I courageously started anyway, slowly, and I built the practice around care for the people in it, so that it could hold. Oak and Stone Therapy is now a group practice of therapists who work alongside one another, and I still see clients myself.

That is why I do this work the way I do. I know what it costs to be the strong one, and I know what it takes to learn another way.

I work with Asian American adults and couples who look like they have it together and feel worn out, stuck, or alone underneath. Many are healers, founders and executives, and creatives and artists, and hold a public role that leaves little room to be human.

What people bring to me

Being the dependable one in your family, and the guilt when you say no
Relationships where you give until there’s nothing left of you
A demanding and high-achieving career, a family, and a hustle culture that never says “enough”
Creative and performance blocks
Faith that has shifted, broken, or needs rebuilding
Recovering painful relationships in marriage, friendships, parenting, and family of origin
Figuring out who you are across your culture, work, gender, and spirituality

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not failing and you don’t have to keep carrying it the way that you do. You inherited a story, and stories can change. If you think we might be a good fit, let’s talk about what you’re holding and what you want to change.

Work With Me ⟶

Oak & Stone Marriage and Family Therapy for individuals, couples and families in Los Angeles

Oak and Stone Therapy

As the founder of a therapy group practice, I lead a team of 14 Asian American and multicultural therapists offering in-person therapy at our Pasadena office, Highland Park office, and Los Angeles office in Koreatown. We specialize in integrating insight-oriented and somatic approaches such as Restoration Therapy and Brainspotting therapy to empower individuals, couples, and families to heal and thrive.

I named the practice for what I had to learn the hard way. Stone is the truth you can stand on: that you are worthy of care without earning it, and that love doesn’t require you to disappear. Oak is what grows from that ground, with deep roots, a thicker base each season, and branches that shelter others, without being used up. I hope that everyone who journeys with our team are grounded in truth and growing through every season.

learn more ⟶

The Indwell Guide

I am the co-author of The Indwell Guide, an 8-step mental health resource designed to empower individuals through visual storytelling, education, and practical tools. In collaboration with a life coach and visual artist, we created this guide to bridge the gap between self-help and professional therapy. Discover our mission at Indwell and order your copy today.