We Help People Create their Life Worth Living

Many people feel like their emotions, thoughts or responses are out of control. They no longer feel like they are living their best lives, or being their truest selves. Therapy can can help by providing practical tools to help you manage your emotions more effectively, understand your thoughts, and modify your responses to stressful situations in your life. 

At Collaborative Change, we attempt to help individuals look at their health holistically, recognizing that we are complex individuals with interacting physical, mental, and existential needs. We also understand that your health is impacted by your environment, your communities, and your personal and generational history. Thus, we examine those impacts and work hard to collaborate with those individuals and institutions that effect your health.

We also believe in providing evidence-based treatment, that provides practical, effective tools for people to use in their lives. We’ve completed specific training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), three approaches that have proven efficacy with a variety of mental health diagnoses. We make it a point to integrate recent research into our practice to ensure we are providing quality care to each of our clients.

Jordan-Buell Hunt, LCSW

Jordan-Buell Hunt, LCSW (he/him) comes to Collaborative Change and Wellness with over 25 years of clinical experience and having provided treatment at all levels of care. Jordan has received advanced training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Family Systems. He served as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work for over 10 years, has been a guest panelist at the Psychotherapy Center for Gender & Sexuality in NYC and has offered staff trainings at Yale New Health Hospital on the topic of Using Alternative Approaches to Conceptualizing Gender.

Kelly Johnson, LPC 

Kelly Johnson (she/hers) is thrilled to join Collaborative Change and Wellness as a Licensed Professional Counselor. She is passionate about working with adolescents and young adults and brings experience working as a school-based therapist with both high school and college students. Her counseling style is warm, direct, and collaborative, and she brings an empathetic, reflective, and non-judgmental stance to her sessions. Kelly uses a combination of cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and strength-based approaches in her work with clients.

In addition to working as a therapist, Kelly is an experienced public health practitioner and researcher. Her work has focused on health equity, adolescent health, LGBTQ+ health, infectious disease prevention, and sexual and reproductive health, both domestically and globally. Her current research examines mental health and resilience among trans and non-binary adolescents.

Kelly holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, a Doctorate in Public Health from UC Berkeley, and a Master’s in Public Health from John Hopkins School of Public Health.

Wisteria Deng, Postdoctoral Fellow

Some of the most profound human experiences happen in the spaces between — between who we were and who we are becoming, between the place we came from and the place we now call home, between the life we imagined and the one we are learning to live.

As an immigrant, a therapist, and a writer, I have spent much of my life and work sitting with those in-between places. Questions of belonging, identity, and transition have shaped not only my personal journey but the way I understand healing itself. I understand the importance of space and time to grow.

This is the kind of space I try to create in therapy. One that is grounded and safe. One where you do not have to shrink yourself, explain yourself, or translate your experience to be understood.

Background & Training

My research and clinical work center on trauma-informed care with diverse and marginalized communities.

My clinical training spans behavioral medicine — including palliative care, psycho-oncology, and grief and bereavement — as well as gender-affirming care. I have provided therapy through the Yale Gender Program and have collaborated with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on meaning-centered psychotherapy designed specifically for Chinese immigrant patients living with cancer. That work sits at the intersection of everything I care most about: cultural attunement, meaning, and meeting people in their hardest moments.

Areas of Clinical Focus

I work with individuals navigating a wide range of experiences, with particular depth in:

• Grief, bereavement, and anticipatory loss
• Coping with life-limiting or serious medical diagnoses
• Menopause and significant life transitions
• Sleep difficulties and stress-related burnout
• LGBTQ+ mental health and identity exploration
• Gender-affirming care and support for gender-diverse clients
• Sexual health, intimacy, and ethical non-monogamy
• Immigrant mental health and international student adjustment
• Cross-cultural identity, belonging, and family dynamics
• Therapy offered in Mandarin Chinese (普通话心理咨询)

Clinical Approach & Modalities

My approach is warm, collaborative, and deeply shaped by cultural humility. I do not believe in a single framework that works for everyone — instead, I draw on a range of evidence-based and meaning-centered modalities, tailored to what each person actually needs:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I)
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
• Meaning-Centered Therapy
• Dignity Therapy