Meaningful relationships are mutual. Balanced with give and take, equal influence between partners, and a vibrant dance of loving responsiveness and caring attention.

Marriage and Family Therapist and professor Dr. Jessica ChenFeng is calling us toward a more justice-oriented approach to relationships and to mental health and well-being, She invites us to open-hearted and empathic perspective taking, and seeking an integrated wholeness that incorporates all of who we are—highlighting the gift of mutuality in our most intimate relationships in marriage and family life.

In this conversation with Jessica ChenFeng, we discuss:

• The importance of integrated and whole experience of ourselves—allowing racial, gender, and cultural identities to weave together in our sense of vocation and contribution to the world


• The importance of mutuality in relationships—but particularly in marriage and family systems.


• The ways emotional power flows in a relationship and impacts marriage and family dynamics


• The difference between partners focusing on meeting their individual needs and caring for the health of an intimate relationship


• And she offers a guided practical exercise to help us lovingly notice and accept our inner experience with a heart open to justice, vulnerability, and the reminder that we are beloved in the eyes of God.

Helpful Links and Resources

• Check out the programs in Marriage & Family Therapy at Fuller School of Psychology www.fuller.edu/school-of-psychology/
  


• Fuller Asian American Center aac.fuller.edu/
  


• Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT) Overview


• Circle of Care Model Explained


• Positive Psychology and Emotions


• Jeanne Tsai's Research on Culture and Emotion


• Asian American Values Scale Reference


• Race and Trauma Resources


• Jeanne Tsai’s research on culture and emotion – Stanford SPARQ


• John and Julie Gottman Relationship Research


• Asian American Values Scale – Paniagua & Yamada (Academic resource)

About Jessica ChenFeng

Dr. Jessica ChenFeng is Associate Professor at the School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller Seminary, and is also Director of the Asian American Well-being Collaboratory at Fuller’s Asian American Center. Prior to her time at Fuller she was a professor at Loma Linda University and California State University, Northridge.

Jessica is known for her clinical expertise and scholarship integrating socio-contextual lenses of race, gender, and generation into work with minoritized individuals, families, and communities. In the last few years, her primary clinical focus has been the well-being of physicians, especially through pandemic-related trauma and burnout. She’s co-authored two books, Finding Your Voice as a Beginning Marriage and FamilyTherapist, as well as Asian American Identities, Relationships, and Cultural Legacies: Reflections from Marriage and Family Therapists. She received the 2022 American Family Therapy Academy Early Career Award.

About the Thrive Center

• Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.


• Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
  


• Follow us on X @thrivecenter
  


• Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter
  

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

• Host: Pam King


• Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook


• Operations Manager: Lauren Kim


• Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.