Psychology & Mental Health Articles
Writing on therapy, stress, connection and the mind, by clinical psychologist Hieu Tran in Ho Chi Minh City. Choose a topic below, or scroll to browse everything.
Stress & Burnout
Exhaustion, chronic stress, overwork, and the pressure to keep performing.
Struggling to get ahead in your career and relationships
Struggling to get ahead in your career and relationships is caused by prioritising technical skills over emotional and social intelligence.…
Recovering from work burnout: How to find your energy again
To recover from work burnout, you must reset your nervous system by establishing strict workload boundaries, practicing a strategic no,…
The Price of Success: Why High Performers in HCMC Struggle with Loneliness
High performers in Ho Chi Minh City struggle with social isolation because achievement-contingent self-worth drives them to prioritise self-validation over…
Loneliness & Belonging
Why connection is hard in a busy city, and how people find their way back to it.
The Price of Success: Why High Performers in HCMC Struggle with Loneliness
High performers in Ho Chi Minh City struggle with social isolation because achievement-contingent self-worth drives them to prioritise self-validation over…
Feeling lonely in Ho Chi Minh City, late at night
Loneliness is the gap between the connection you have and the connection you need, which is why a full calendar…
What actually changes in a group
Group therapy overcomes loneliness by providing universality, dismantling isolation, and serving as a safe social laboratory to practice relational skills.…
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Relationships, Family & Identity
Couples, family expectations, childhood wounds, and the question of who you are.
Always putting others first: the pattern called echoism
Always putting others first is usually described as a virtue, and it is often lived as an exhaustion. There is…
Why do I feel guilty for being angry?
Most people who feel guilty for being angry describe the same order of events. The anger appears, and then, very…
Why Do I Feel Responsible for Other People’s Feelings?
Feeling responsible for other people’s feelings usually starts long before you notice it happening. A partner goes quiet, a friend’s…
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Trauma & Feeling Safe
What trauma does to the nervous system, and how a sense of safety is rebuilt.
Healing childhood family wounds and finding peace in your adult relationships
To heal childhood family wounds, you must recognise trauma, process emotions through therapy, and reconnect with your body using mindful…
Understand What Makes You Feel Unsafe After Traumas
Chronic hypervigilance after trauma is caused by a rewired fear network in the brain. An overactive amygdala continuously signals danger,…
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How Therapy Works
Inside the therapy room: group analysis, mentalizing, and the unconscious.
Beyond the Monad: The Evolution of Group Analysis
The evolution of group analysis shifted psychotherapy from treating the isolated individual to healing people within an interconnected social matrix.…
The “Mentalizing” Workout: How to Build Stronger Connections Through Group Therapy
Mentalizing is the capacity to understand the underlying thoughts, emotions, and intentions driving human behaviour. To build stronger connections and…
How to Understand What Others Think
To understand what others think, you must cultivate your mentalizing capacity by actively practicing curiosity and viewing your assumptions as…
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Getting Help in HCMC
Practical guidance on finding mental health support in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mental health services in HCMC: A guide to finding help
There is mental health support in HCMC, but knowing where to start can feel incredibly overwhelming when you are exhausted.…
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Talks, Conferences & News
Lectures, conference presentations and professional updates.