Meet Suyeu Kuo

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suyeu Kuo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Suyeu, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.

I avoid burnout by making sure that the things that I commit to are things I am fully passionate about. For example, in my junior year of high school, I was taking multiple Advanced Placement (AP) classes and an extra class period in the morning. After school and on weekends, I would work three part-time jobs as a tutor, referee, and front desk receptionist. Additionally, I was also committed to at least 10 weekly hours of extracurricular activities, bimonthly volunteering with a high school youth group, and monthly meetings on a city committee as a representative for my high school.

Passion inspires motivation. My passions are giving back to the community and doing things I love, which is why I became a psychologist. I love being able to help my patients with some of the most difficult things that they experience, because I am passionate about getting my patients closer to the lives that they want to live. Without passion for your commitments, burnout is inevitable.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Currently, I spend most of my time being the Executive Clinical Director of Protected Roots Integrative (PRI) Treatment Center. The most exciting and special part of PRI right now is how many insurance companies we are getting in network with, because this means we can provide more accessible and affordable treatments for our community, an integral value for myself and PRI. Professionally, I have been focused on supporting our growing team of clinicians and staff in order to provide the best treatment for our patients. Interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork is how PRI provides well-rounded care for our patients.

One of our newest programs is our Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Intensives! In addition to our Adolescent (10-17 years old) and Young Adult (18-25 years old) intensive outpatient programs (IOPs), we do a specialty track intensive for those primarily struggling with executive functioning. Currently, we are accepting 10 to 13 year olds into this next round of the intensive, but we are also looking to do a 14 to 17 year old intensive in the future. If anyone is interested, they can reach out through PRI’s website!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Perseverance
2. Problem-solving
3. Flexibility

Without these characteristics/skills, it would have been difficult for me to face the obstacles and life events that arose on my way to getting where I am now. My advice for those early in their journey is to not avoid the obstacles and life transitions that come up in life. Face them head in order to address them. Be flexible in terms of your thinking process, because sometimes, the path to getting where you want to be is not always the one you originally planned. However, there is almost always a way to get to your end goals, especially if you have these qualities.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I try my best to slow down. Personally and professionally, I find that mistakes are most frequently made when people rush through the overwhelm without addressing the underlying problems and causes. Overwhelm is an uncomfortable feeling that no one enjoys experiencing, so the action urge is often to get rid of the overwhelming stressors as quickly as possible, which can often create increased instances of feeling overwhelmed due to the root problems and causes not being addressed.

As cliche as it might sound from a psychologist, I slow down using mindfulness. Mindfulness can address the cognitive and somatic aspects of overwhelm, which helps me utilize my problem-solving skills more effectively. From there, I am often better able to prioritize the things that have to be done first, so I can tackle the more time-sensitive issues immediately and methodically complete everything else. Even if you don’t like mindfulness, I think the most important way to address overwhelm is to prioritize self-care. Self-care can mean a lot of different things for different people, so as long as it is something that is restorative for you, that qualifies as self-care.

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Image Credits

Desi Dumalo
Suyeu Kuo

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