Dr. Huong Diep
pronounced Hong Depp
Board Certified Psychologist | Certified Financial Therapist™ | Consultant
The right question can open something important.
Many of my clients are thoughtful, capable people who have spent much of their lives responding to what others needed from them. In our work together, there is often a moment when they pause and say, “That’s a great question. I’ve never thought about it that way before.”
Part of what I do is help people name the patterns they have been living inside of but may not yet have had words for.
I do not see people as broken. I see people who adapted in smart and necessary ways to earlier experiences, family systems, and pressures, and who may now be realizing that those old ways of coping no longer fit the life they are living.
“Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul be just another human soul.”
— C.G. Jung
Where money, identity, and transition meet
My move into financial therapy was not a sudden career change. It was a natural evolution of the work I was already doing.
Again and again, I noticed the same thread running through clients’ stories: money. Not just income, budgeting, or spending, but the deeper meanings attached to money, including safety, pressure, obligation, success, guilt, and self-worth.
As the eldest daughter of Vietnamese refugees, I grew up with a deep understanding of how survival can shape a family’s relationship to achievement, security, and what it means to feel safe. For many people, success is not just about ambition. It is tied to protection, belonging, and responsibility.
That understanding is part of what drew me to this work.
Today, I work with clients who are navigating the emotional, relational, and cultural dimensions of money, whether they are first-generation wealth builders, globally mobile professionals, people moving through major life transitions, or those trying to understand who they are beyond achievement alone.
How I work
My work brings together clinical depth, financial therapy, and a strong understanding of culture, identity, and transition.
I draw from evidence-based approaches including EMDR, IFS, CBT, and other trauma-informed modalities. I am board certified through the American Board of Professional Psychology, a distinction held by about 4% of licensed psychologists in the United States, and I am also a Certified Financial Therapist™.
What matters most to me, though, is not just what I have been trained in. It is how I use that training to help people make sense of what is happening beneath the surface and create change that feels meaningful and lasting.
Depending on your needs, I offer several ways to work together:
Financial therapy
For individuals and couples wanting to better understand the emotional and relational side of money, especially during times of stress, transition, or identity change.Consultation
For professionals, families, and systems navigating the human side of money, wealth, responsibility, and change.Clinical supervision and mentorship
For therapists who want to deepen their work in financial therapy and build a more thoughtful, sustainable specialty.
Why this work matters to me
My work is grounded in rigorous training, but it is also shaped by lived experience.
I understand cultural pressure, migration, reinvention, and the quiet ways people learn to carry responsibility long before they have language for it.
I understand how outward success can coexist with inner tension. I understand how people can look highly capable while still feeling deeply stuck.
What I care about is helping people move out of old survival patterns and into a life that feels more honest, more intentional, and more fully their own.
“If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”
— Toni Morrison
Training and credentials
Licensed and Certified
Licensed Psychologist in California, Nevada, New York, South Dakota, and Washington, DC
Board Certified in Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology
Certified Financial Therapist™, Financial Therapy Association
Education and Training
BA Psychology/Spanish, UCLA
MA and PsyD, Clinical Psychology at the University of Denver, with an emphasis in International Disaster Psychology
APA-accredited predoctoral internship and two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Outside the office
I love bicycling through new cities, spicy food, deep conversations, and staying current on pop culture while trying not to spend too much time on social media.
