An Inner Journey Year-in-Review for 2025

Dr. MJ Yang
Dec 21, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Dec 27, 2025

As we arrive at the final days of December, I’m pausing for a 2025 review with a full heart.

This has been a year of growth in many forms—clinical, creative, cultural, and personal—and I am grateful to share this last reflection of the year with you.

Inner Journey Psychology continued to evolve in ways that felt both steady and meaningful. Each milestone came with inner work behind the scenes: clarifying my voice, tending to my values, and strengthening the mission of offering thoughtful, culturally grounded mental health care.

Before we look ahead to a new year, I want to honor a few moments from 2025 that shaped Inner Journey—and then invite you into a simple reflection of your own.

2025 Review: Highlights from Inner Journey Psychology

This year brought several meaningful milestones. Each represented not only professional growth, but a deepening of intention, authenticity, and connection.

Below are a few highlight moments, each paired with an Instagram post for those who prefer visual reflections.

1. Introducing Myself — Meet Dr. MJ Yang

Early this year, I stepped forward to share more of who I am as a psychologist, immigrant, mother, and human being. This introduction was an act of visibility and clarity—allowing clients, readers, and community members to meet me more fully.

2. Receiving the APA Division 35 Community Practice Award

I was deeply honored to receive the 2025 Jean Lau Chin Early Career Professional Award in Community Practice from APA Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women). As an immigrant, feminist, and community-rooted psychologist, this recognition felt especially meaningful.

More than an individual achievement, this award reflects the collective wisdom and solidarity of a community of feminist psychologists who hold space for complexity, advocate for justice, and embody care in action. Being seen and supported in this way reminded me that this work is never done alone—and that healing and transformation are strengthened through connection.

3. Presenting at the APA Conference

I had the honor of presenting at the 2025 APA Annual Convention in Denver with Dr. Cory Reano. Our presentation, Asian American International/Cross-Cultural Motherhood: The Blessing, the Tears, and the Wisdom, centered the lived experiences of immigrant and international mothers raising children across cultures, languages, and systems.

We explored the in-between of international motherhood—the invisible labor of navigating multiple worlds, the emotional weight of parenting without a clear blueprint, and the quiet freedom that can emerge from redefining motherhood on one’s own terms. A core theme of our work was the power of naming: how giving language to these layered experiences can foster validation, self-compassion, and connection.

Learn more about this presentation

Sharing this work at APA felt deeply aligned with the mission of Inner Journey: creating space for complex, often unseen experiences to be understood and honored.

4. Presenting at the ISST Conference

Later this year, I traveled to Zurich to attend the XXIII International Congress of Analytical Psychology (IAAP), held during the 150th anniversary of C.G. Jung’s birth. Being part of this international gathering felt like both a homecoming and a renewal—connecting my clinical work to the deeper roots of Jungian psychology.

I presented a poster titled Creating Space for the Experiences of the Non-understandable from Wisdom of the Senex–Puer, exploring how therapy can hold both structure and soul. Drawing on the archetypes of Senex (stability, structure, symptom relief) and Puer (meaning, imagination, and possibility), I reflected on the importance of balancing evidence-based practice with depth-oriented exploration.

learn more about this poster presentation

This dialogue between the practical and the symbolic closely reflects my clinical style—and the heart of Inner Journey: creating space for healing that is both grounded and meaningful.

5.Walking Jung's Zurich: Visiting the Roosts of Jungian Psychology

During the IAAP 2025 conference in Zurich, I also had the opportunity to visit C. G. Jung’s former home (now the Jung Museum), the C. G. Jung Institute, and the historic Bollingen Tower.

As a Jungian-oriented psychologist, these visits felt deeply meaningful—offering a quiet, embodied connection to the places where the theories that shape my daily clinical work were lived, imagined, and formed.

Walking these spaces brought a sense of reverence and gratitude for the lineage of thought that continues to support the inner lives of the many souls I work with.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into this part of my journey, and I hold a gentle hope that my connection with these places will continue to unfold in new ways over time.

6. Launching the Free Library Resources — Six Blog Categories

One of the most meaningful steps this year was launching a free, organized library of

📖 Weekly blog reflections

🔖 Daily mental health tips

🫶 Community-based events

📜 Professional presentations & trainings

—created to make mental health knowledge more accessible, grounded, and culturally responsive.

The library now includes six core categories:

🌈 Inner Journey

🚀 Entrepreneurship

🤱 Motherhood

🌏 Immigrant Mental Health

🌹 Women’s Mental Health

🧩 Workplace Stress & Resilience

Offering these resources has been one of the most rewarding parts of 2025, and reflects Inner Journey’s commitment to thoughtful, accessible psychoeducation.

Each of these moments represents more than a milestone—they reflect the deeper intentions behind Inner Journey: to create accessible spaces for healing, to honor cultural complexity, and to support people through meaningful inner work.

Thank you for being here with me in this journey.

A Gentle Invitation for Your Own Reflection

As we close out the year together, I want to offer you a simple way to honor your own inner landscape.

Reflection doesn’t need to be long or polished. It simply needs to be honest.

Below is a brief, compassionate checklist to help you recognize the parts of your year that mattered.

One thing I’m proud of......
One thing I let go......
One truth I began to live......
One boundary I honored......
One part of me that grew......

If you can answer one or two today, that already counts. If you’d prefer to return to it later, that counts too. Inner work asks for gentleness—not pressure.