Gaby Deng,

Gaby is a second-year graduate student in the Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) program at the University of

Tennessee, Knoxville. She has been a Licensed Professional Counselor in mainland China since 2013. Before

relocating to the U.S., she worked as a university counselor for four years, and then opened her own private practice

in Southeast China in 2017. Gaby began systematic training in psychodynamic psychotherapy through a U.S.-based

institution in 2016. Her training followed a tripartite structure derived from psychoanalytic education, which

integrates theoretical study, personal analysis, and ongoing supervision of clinical practice. After completing the

program in 2020, she pursued additional advanced training in psychoanalysis and continued to receive regular

clinical supervision from senior psychoanalysts and psychiatrists in the U.S.

Gaby’s way of working is warm, grounded, and collaborative. The guiding belief she learned early on from her first

supervisor, Dr. Richard Kluft, is this: the slower you go, the faster you get there. She listens closely to what a client

says, what may be difficult to say underneath, and what seems to repeat unconsciously over time. Together, she and

the client explore how present struggles may be connected to earlier experiences, important relationships, and

coping strategies that once served a purpose but may no longer be helpful. As insight grows, the clients know how to

translate it into practical steps in everyday life.

Gaby has also developed a particular interest in clinical working with children through the lens of object relations and

attachment theory. She leans on Melanie Klein's ideas about children's inner world and always stays attentive to how

a child actually communicates. It could be a drawing, a word they keep coming back to, a pattern in how they play, or

some small detail that might matter more than it seemed at first.

Gaby provides psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in both English and Mandarin Chinese. She

welcomes clients who are curious about themselves and interested in a deep, long-term process of understanding and

change.

Growing up in a pharmacy, Gaby absorbed the philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine as part of everyday life. It

taught her to understand health as a living balance between body and mind, rest and movement and to trust in the

quiet, restorative power of food. When she is not with clients, Gaby is often in the kitchen, where pepper and garlic

meet the heat of a smoking wok and familiar dishes begin to take shape. She also loves working with dough, shaping

it into baozi, mantou, and flower rolls in a slow, steady rhythm that feels almost like meditation.

Client Focus

• Early trauma in one’s family of origin and its impact on development

• Emotional turmoil such as loss, shame, anxiety, fear, depression, and feelings of emptiness

• Persistent somatic symptoms without a clear medical diagnosis and not effectively relieved by medication

• Out-patient psychotherapy during the recovery phase of certain psychiatric conditions

• Interpersonal and intimate relationship difficulties

• Immigration bereavement/Cross-cultural adjustment

Office Hours

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Please contact for appointment times.