Wonyoung L. Cho, PhD, LMFT, is an assistant professor of Marriage, Couples, and Family Therapy (MCFT) program in the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling in Portland, Oregon. She is a board member and the Co-chair of the Research Interest Group in American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA), and recently has been appointed to be a part of the Leadership of AFTA (2023-2025). She is also active in the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA).
Dr. Cho is a bilingual and bicultural 1.5-generation Korean-American, and is passionate about access and equity of mental health services and higher education for the historically marginalized communities. As an interdisciplinary practitioner-researcher, her interest includes using languages as marker of culture to understand culturally responsive and responsible pedagogy, practice, and research. Her clinical experience includes working with a multidisciplinary treatment team in an outpatient medical setting, specializing in trauma work with children and youth.
Personal Statement
I am bilingual (conversational Korean and English, written and oral) and interested in using languages as markers of culture to learn and understand the culture(s) of mental health, clinical education, and practice.
Current Research
- Context Filtering and l/Languages in therapy practices and education
- Socioculturally relevant and responsive pedagogy and practice
- Mental and relational health in diaporic communities
- Multilingual families and practitioners
Publications
Cho, W. L. (2025). Chapter 8: Relational Ethics at the Heart of Asian American Family Systems. In J. ChenFeng & L. Kim (Eds.), Asian American Identities, Relationships, and Cultural Legacies: Reflections from Marriage and Family Therapists. Routledge.
Kim, L. & Cho, W. L. (2023). Beyond the Black, Brown, and White: Locating self in Third Spaces in Social Justice Education. In L. A. Nice (Ed.), Stepping Into Socially-Just Teaching: Lived Experiences of Early Marriage & Family Therapy Educators (AFTA Springerbriefs in family therapy). Springer.
Cho, W. L., Pham, T. T., & Chung, D. K. (2021). Intersections of Asian languages, culture, and professional education: Where the personal and professional intimately collide. In m. polanco, N. Zamani, & C. D. Kim (Eds.), Justice in language: Exploring bilinguality in family therapy (AFTA Springerbriefs in family therapy). Springer.
Fraenkel, P. & Cho, W. L. (2020). Up, down, in, and around: Couple and family coping during the Corona Virus Pandemic. Family Process 59(3), 847-864. doi: 10.1111/famp.12570
Cho, W. L. (2019). A response to multicultural competence re-examined. In G. Monk, J. Winslade, & S. Sinclair (Eds.), Intercultural Counseling: Bridging the Us and Them Divide. San Diego, CA: Cognella Publishing.
Cho, W. L. (2019). Context Filtering: Clinical and Linguistic Practices of Asian American Multilingual Mental Health Professionals (Doctoral dissertation).
Cho, W. L. (2019, May). 엘림 심리 상담 칼럼: 이야기로 만드는 자녀들의 건강한 정체성*. San Diego Korean-American Community Magazine.
*translation) Elim Counseling Column: Healthy identity for our children through stories
Presentations
Cho, W. L. & Zamani, N. (2025, January 17). AFTA Brown Bag Conversation: Bilingualism, Culture, and Social Justice in Family Therapy [Online Presentation]. American Family Therapy Academy.
Sifuentez, B., Wang, A., & Cho, W. L. (2024, May 30). The Commodification of Social Justice in Neoliberal Times: Creating Shared Meaning Amongst Faculty. National Conference on Race and Ethnicity 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Cho, W. L. (2024, May 8). 조율하는 상담치료: 우리 가치관을 탐색하다 (Attuning Therapy: Locating our worldviews) [Special topics lecture]. 신라대학교 (Silla University), Busan, South Korea.
Cho, W. L. (2024, April 27). 치료자의 자기와 치료에서의 자기 활용하기: Self of the Therapist and Using Self in Therapy [6-hour Continued Education and Training Workshop]. Korean Association of Family Therapy, Seoul, South Korea.
Michaels, C., Kaminsky, S., Nisse, M., Holloway, A., Cho, W. L., Lebow, J., Helps, S., & McWey, L. (2023, October 28). World Network Meeting [Invited Panel], moderated by Takeshi Tamura. Asian Association of Family Therapy 8th Annual Conference, Hong Kong.
Cho, W. L. (2023, June). Decolonizing Therapyspeak Through Translanguaging: Using Language as Marker of Culture for Socioculturally Attuned Practice [Brief presentation]. American Family Therapy Academy 44th Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Sifuentez, B. & Cho, W. L. (2023, May). Color Bombing a PWI: Solidarity Across Racial Lines without Co-opting Narratives in Higher Education [Presentation & Workshop]. National Conference on Race and Ethnicity 2023, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Cho, W. L., Villalobos Andino, C., David, S., & Dailey, M. (2022, June). Therapyspeak: Articulating the subculture of therapy [Brief presentation]. American Family Therapy Academy 43rd Annual Conference, Virtual Conference, USA.
Academic Credentials
PhD in Education, Claremont Graduate University & San Diego State University
AAMFT-approved Clinical Supervisor, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), California and Oregon
MS in Counseling (Marriage and Family Therapy), San Diego State University
BA in Psychology (with minor in Asian American Studies), University of California – Los Angeles