Meet Myoung Ah Holm of Asian Pacific Development Center in Aurora

Today we’d like to introduce you to Myoung Ah Holm.

Myoung, before we jump into specific questions about your organization, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I came to the US to pursue my higher education. I was a high school teacher in South Korea. One of my students got into behavioral problems including substance use, gang involvement, runaways, and as a result, legal issues. This student did not get any protection and support from family and school. School could not do anything but let the police take him out of his class.

This incident changed my whole view of being a teacher and got me interested in human behavior and psychology. I wanted to be helpful for people in trouble and experiencing challenges. I obtained my master’s at Pennsylvania State University and my doctoral degree in counseling psychology at University of Denver. I am currently working as a licensed bilingual (Korean and English) psychologist at APDC. My passion for working with immigrants and refugees has been growing strongly over time. The areas of interest are mental health issues for adults in general and traumas and chronic pain in particular.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My biggest struggle was to keep my self-esteem and self-identity. It probably stemmed from cultural and language barriers as well as a shift in my social status from majority to minority. At some point during my school years, I lost a sense of who I am, where I am from, and where I am headed to. It was a challenging journey for me to reconnect to my own self-identify that had been buried in American soil. In a Korean proverb, ‘the soil settles harder after raining.’

Asian Pacific Development Center – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Asian Pacific Development Center is powered by its rich heritage of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) advocacy and exists today to serve and support all immigrant and refugee communities with a whole health, community-based engagement approach through health, education, and advocacy. We specialize in providing culturally relevant, in-language behavioral health, primary care, adult education, youth programs, victim assistance, health equity advocacy, and interpretation and translations services.

APDC began in 1980 as a small specialty behavioral health clinic that focused on addressing trauma in Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao communities that were resettling in Colorado after the Vietnam War. We are really proud of the growth of our organization, our clinic continues to be the only specialty clinic in Colorado for AANHPI communities and our services have expanded to seven departments that work holistically to tackle cultural and linguistic barriers for individuals and communities. For example – if someone is experiencing depression or anxiety due to a recent relocation and urgency to find a job or learn English, they can come to our clinic and also take English or career pathways classes at one location. We find that many of our community members often utilize more than one of our services, so there are many pathways to take to be healthy, empowered, and successful in their journeys.

It is also a unique space where several cultures come together in one building. Our staff speaks over 20 languages and our community members speak over 40. It creates a really beautiful atmosphere where people can connect to one another and feel like they have a piece of home. Right now, our biggest communities are Karen, Nepali, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Somali. We also want to let the wider community know that we provide services to everyone! If one of our staff doesn’t speak a particular language we utilize our social enterprise, Colorado Language Connection to ensure language access for all.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I am proud of every moment I have been through in my career. I prefer process rather to outcome. I am so proud of myself, my clients, my coworkers and my family who enable me to be and do.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1537 Alton Street, Aurora, CO 80010
• Website: www.apdc.org
• Phone: 303.923.2920
• Email: info@apdc.org
• Instagram: apdc.colorado
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/apdcf
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/AsianPacificDev

 Image Credit:
APDC Staff

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