BenTime Stories started as a personal platform for me to explore my innermost thoughts, feelings, and experiences, including the deeper and darker aspects of my life. It was a [square] space where I could freely express my musings and discoveries, and unleash my creativity–ultimately allowing me to delve deeper into my psyche and uncover truths about myself that I may not have otherwise realized.

Eventually this space evolved into a therapeutic practice, inviting others to share their stories and have their voices heard while also exploring shadow elements and bringing forth hidden truths.  The various narratives that emerged through the sharing of this space have awakened and inspired a desire to curate unheard stories to uplift and illustrate the unlived fantasies, wishes, and losses held within the collective unconscious of underrepresented and marginalized communities.  

My name is Ben and I am a public health social worker, social gerontologist, and psychotherapist with fifteen years of experience in health and human services. I currently live and practice out of the Silicon Beach in California. I am the director of a local community-based 501 (c)-3 nonprofit organization, Westside Pacific Villages, dedicated to connecting neighbors with neighbors to support healthy aging and aging-in-place. Aside from this, I serve as a member of the NASW Aging Specialty Practice Section Committee; Board Secretary for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Los Angeles Chapter, and public mental health consultant on SAMHSA’s Opioid Response Network Health Equity Training Team with the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and SAMHSA’s Program Advancing Recovery Knowledge (SPARK). Occasionally you can also find me moonlighting as an adjunct assistant professor for Western New Mexico University’s (WNMU) School of Social Work.

My life and professional experiences shape my behavioral health consulting and therapy practice--paying close attention to loneliness, chronic health conditions, culture, toxic shame, identity, loss, gender, existential crises, sexuality, and transgenerational trauma.

BACKGROUND: My social work journey has been transformative and healing--setting the foundation for my therapy practice. I was initially interested in medical and public health social work because of deep-seated fears about death and disease that stemmed from family. This led me to pursue specialized training in Geriatric Social Work and Gerontology at UCLA which provided me with psychosocial skills to empower families as we navigate fragmented US health systems, while also promoting resilience in response to adversities across the life course. Throughout my training, I also became particularly drawn to social work’s commitment to social justice which illuminated suffering and disparities that have been insidiously hidden in structural inequities. This awakened a deeper sensitivity, exploration, and care towards untended silent wounds and “legacies of loss” carried by marginalized folx, beginning with my own as a queer and closeted first-generation Asian American, descending from boat people refugees surviving through Operation Seasweep.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING: I received my Master of Social Welfare (MSW) with specializations in Geriatric Social Work, and Human Services Management from UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs; and hold a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Anthropology, Public Health, and Gerontology from UCLA College of Letters and Science. I am Certified in Public Health (CPH) from the National Board of Public Health Examiners; and am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (LCSW#111929) and Pennsylvania Board of Social Workers, Marriage Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors (CW023993).

RESEARCH/ACADEMIC INTERESTS: As a scholar of health, human behavior, aging, culture, and society; I have strong interests and passions for: Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), Totally Accountable Care Organizations (TACOs), Civic Technology, Community Health, Aging-in-Place, Age-Friendly Cities and Communities, Social Capital, Psychocultural, Sociolinguistic,and Medical Anthropology, Social Gerontology, Analytical (Jungian) Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Buddhist/Existential Philosophy and Psychology, and Transgenerational Trauma.