Individual therapy in Ho Chi Minh City
What is individual therapy?
Some people want focused, practical help with something specific; others want to look closely at their core patterns, how they relate to others, and what blocks the life they want. You set the direction, and it can change as we go.
The Approach
One-on-One Exploration: Meeting individually to safely explore what brought you to therapy and what might be keeping you stuck.
Sessions are 50 minutes, available in person in Saigon Pearl, Ho Chi Minh City or online.
Providing support for adults navigating a wide range of personal and clinical challenges, including:
Areas of Focus
Emotion Regulation
Navigating intense emotions like anger, grief, and shame
Mood & Professional Growth
Anxiety, depression, and career coaching
Stress Management
Burnout and chronic stress
Relationships
Relationship difficulties and attachment patterns
Identity & Growth
Identity, self-esteem, and life transitions
Trauma Support
Trauma and complex PTSD (cPTSD)
What is it like to go to individual therapy?
Getting Started
Establishing Goals
Building a shared understanding of your hopes, wishes, and the obstacles in your way.
Exploring Challenges
Looking closely at specific situations where your difficulties feel most intense.
Mapping Dynamics
Identifying the underlying inner dynamics to chart a clear path forward.
How It Works
Building Clarity
Bringing hidden issues into conscious awareness to provide helpful clarity and understanding.
Creating Structure
Developing an outline for the work so you know what needs to happen.
Relief and Growth
Easing what is most pressing when that is the priority, and working toward your wider life goals when you want to go further.
A Tailored Approach
Ongoing Evaluation
Collaboratively reviewing progress along the way and adjusting the approach as needed.
Personalised Focus
Ensuring the therapy is customized to feel meaningful and genuinely useful to you.
Clear Starting Point
Utilizing a comprehensive clinical assessment as the foundation of our work.
Who individual therapy is for
You might find therapy beneficial if you recognise yourself in any of these situations:
Repeating patterns
The same argument, with different people. The same point in a job where it starts to go wrong.
Something you cannot account for
Anxiety, low mood, or a flatness that does not match your circumstances, which makes it harder to justify doing anything about.
Living between cultures
The particular tiredness of being fluent in a place and still not quite of it.
Succeeding and depleted
Functioning well enough that nobody has noticed, including, for a long time, you.
Wanting to understand yourself
No crisis. You would simply rather live deliberately than by default.
No Crisis Required: You do not need a formal diagnosis or a major life crisis to start therapy. Many clients begin simply because something feels “off,” and they are ready for a change.
How I work
The method follows the person, not the other way round. Some people arrive needing something practical and soon: a way through the panic before a meeting, a way to stop the same argument escalating at home. Others have done the practical work already and know the problem is older than the situation they are in. Most are somewhere between, and where they are changes over the course of the work. I am trained in three approaches, and I choose between them, or move between them, according to what a particular person needs at a particular point. If you want to know which of these applies to you, that is a reasonable thing to ask in a first session, and I will give you a straight answer.
Evidence-Based Methods
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Therapy (ISTDP)
Works directly with the emotional and bodily blocks holding a pattern in place. Active rather than reflective: less about narrating the past than meeting what happens in the room.
Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT)
Builds the capacity to read your own and other people’s inner states accurately. Useful when relationships keep going wrong in ways you cannot quite account for.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Offers concrete tools for making room for difficult thoughts and feelings instead of being run by them, and for working out what actually matters to you and acting on it.
Clinical Expertise & Cultural Perspective
Cross-Cultural Support
Uniquely positioned to support expats, Vietnamese individuals, and anyone navigating life between different cultures.
Rigorous Qualifications
A Norway-licensed clinical psychologist trained in Bergen and Oslo, bringing high Northern-European clinical standards to our work.
Unique Cultural Insight
Integrates evidence-based psychology with a deep, lived understanding of Vietnamese family systems.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How long does individual therapy take?
It varies, and I would rather tell you what I actually think than keep it vague. Some work is focused and takes a few months. Some takes longer, because what brought you is older than the situation you came in with. Ask me at the end of a first session and I will give you an honest estimate, then revise it with you as we go.
Do I need to speak fluent English?
Sessions are conducted in English, but you do not need to be perfectly fluent. What matters is that you can express what you are going through.
Is what I share kept confidential?
Yes. Confidentiality is a cornerstone of the work and is especially important within HCMC’s close-knit expat community.
Can I do sessions online?
Yes, online sessions are available and just as effective for most concerns.
Key facts
- Service: individual psychotherapy for adults
- Session length: 50 minutes
- Format: in person in Ho Chi Minh City, or online
- Languages: English, with Norwegian also available
- Main methods: Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Therapy (ISTDP) and Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT)
- Therapist: Hieu Tran, clinical psychologist licensed in Norway (HPR 10136421), Cand. Psychol (equivalent Psy. D)
- Booking: email info@hieutrangoc.vn or WhatsApp