Sooyeon Lee-Garland, Ph.D., LMFT
Marriage and Family Therapist · Clinical Supervisor · Educator
AAMFT Clinical Fellow & Approved Supervisor
Dr. Sooyeon Lee-Garland is a Marriage and Family Therapist, clinical supervisor, and educator with more than thirty years of clinical experience. She works with individuals, couples, and families to deepen their understanding of themselves and their relationships, honor what makes each person unique, and grow toward greater personal wholeness and healthier relationships.
Approach to Therapy
Dr. Lee-Garland believes that human struggles are best understood not simply as problems within an individual, but within the broader contexts of relationships, families, intergenerational experiences, culture, and lived experience. Her work is grounded in a systemic and relational perspective.
For her, therapy is more than reducing symptoms or attempting to “fix” what is wrong. It is an invitation to understand ourselves more deeply, approach patterns that may no longer serve us with curiosity, and rediscover the strengths, resilience, and possibilities already within us.
She seeks to create a safe and welcoming therapeutic space where clients can discover and honor their uniqueness, grow toward greater wholeness, and connect more deeply with others without losing who they are.
Clinical Supervision and Therapist Development
Dr. Lee-Garland views clinical supervision as both a place to develop clinical knowledge and skills and a relational space in which therapists come to understand themselves more deeply and learn to use themselves responsibly within the therapeutic relationship.
Alongside systemic and relational case conceptualization, clinical judgment, and intervention, she invites therapists to reflect on how their personal histories, values, identities, strengths, and emotional responses enter and shape their clinical work.
The Person/Self of the Therapist is therefore central to her approach to supervision. Her goal is to nurture not only clinically competent practitioners, but also thoughtful, grounded, and relationally present therapists who can engage others with authenticity, flexibility, and responsibility.
Education and Professional Background
Dr. Lee-Garland earned her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch University New England and is an AAMFT Clinical Fellow & Approved Supervisor.
She has taught and supervised MFT graduate students and developing clinicians at institutions including Iona University, Fairfield University, Antioch University New England, and Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute. Her teaching experience includes clinical supervision, professional identity and ethics, social justice and diversity, and foundational Marriage and Family Therapy education.
As a bilingual clinician and educator who has provided therapy, supervision, and education in both Korean and English, she is especially attentive to understanding individuals and families within their cultural and relational contexts.