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

Professional Associations

  • International Psychoanalytic Association

  • Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society

 


Office Hours

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

Fees

  • $40/session with a generous sliding scale if needed.

Payment Methods

  • Cash

  • Check

  • Card

  • HSA Cards