About Elvina
Elvina Lui is a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that specializes in working with couples. She is currently practicing in Pasadena, California, in Los Angeles county. License # MFC 51046.
She graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Psychology. For the two years between her undergrad and grad school, she worked in group homes as a direct caregiver to emotionally disturbed foster children and youth. In 2007, she received her Master’s degree in Counseling from Western Seminary, where she did additional studies in addiction as a trainee in two different treatment programs–Asian Family Institute in San Francisco, an outpatient program for gambling addicts and their family, and New Life Community Services in Santa Cruz, a residential drug and alcohol treatment center with both inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. While she is trained in the harm reduction model, her work in addictions treatment is based in the 12 Step model.
She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. At age 7, she moved to California with her mother and younger sister. From ages 8 to 18, she grew up in Hong Kong, where she learned Cantonese as her second language. Upon finishing high school, she returned to California for her college education.
Prior to starting her own private practice, Elvina worked in a wide range of settings and non-profits: a private pay counseling center, a number of community based mental health services funded through Medi-Cal, court mandated education and counseling services for DUI offenders, an aftercare program for at-risk youth coming out of juvenile hall, and a county funded inpatient psychiatric facility for severely mentally ill patients.
In 2012 she started her own private practice in San Ramon, where she focuses on working with couples. While she greatly enjoys working with teenagers and families, she finds couples counseling to be her passion and calling in life, to help couples repair and revive their relationships.
In the past, Elvina has volunteered for a wide variety of causes and non-profits: supporting free tutoring programs, children’s summer programs, foster children, and raising awareness for mental health within the Bay Area’s Chinese community. Elvina volunteered with Agape Villages Foster Family Agency, helping with outreach and fundraising efforts between 2012-2015. She has also been a volunteer co-host of an on air Cantonese radio show about mental health and relationships from 2008 through 2014.