ABOUT LAI

Inclusive, Compassionate, Agency-Promoting Mental Health Counselor

Lai (lie) T. Moy is a Pennsylvania-licensed professional counselor (LPC), nationally certified counselor (NCC), and certified clinical trauma professional (CCTP). She has worked with diverse populations that include children, teens, adults, and families in community behavioral health, and adults (18+) in group practice. She has also worked alongside survivors of trauma, co-creating safe spaces and trusting relationships, while bearing witness to their stories, healing, and thriving. She focuses not on asking, “What is wrong?” but on “What has happened?” Lai is inclusive and open to collaborating with individuals of all identities and has an especial interest in holding space with members of the Asian diaspora.

Lai is a daughter of Chinese immigrants, placing her within, in between, and on the margins of intersecting cultural and social spaces. Connecting her to these spaces is talk story—a Chinese oral tradition that blends family history and experiences, cultural values and myths into narrative. Talk story instilled in her a natural curiosity in others’ stories, as well as a deep empathy, and appreciation for, how context and intersubjectivity impact the stories we live out and tell.

Lai earned a BA in English with a concentration in Asian American literature. She then spent the next 20+ years as a development editor studying, exploring, and shaping content in higher educational publishing, but more important, learning from and being in community with others. To keep this core value continuously engaged, she also volunteered and mentored. During this time, she found herself chronically negotiating, rather than traveling, the path toward her true north. So, one day, she did just that—she traveled the path—and all at the midpoint of her life. She eventually earned her MA in clinical mental health counseling, completed her post-graduate supervised clinical experience, and obtained her licensure and certification to become a licensed professional counselor. She has never felt more aligned.

In addition to being a therapist, Lai is an avid traveler, flower lover, and novice houseplant parent. She and her partner are happily married and devoted to their two cats. When she can, she finds herself wandering outside to soak in the sun, kayak on a lake, commune with the trees, and marvel at the flight of birds. As a child, Lai’s mother would remark that Lai had “sprouted wings to fly long before she grew her legs to walk.” To this day, she’s still testing those wings.