Jenn Nguyen-So
Facilitator, Therapist, Instructor, Seattle, Washington
“If we each understood and adopted the mindset that there’s more that binds us than separates us, we could change lives. This is true in work and in life. We are bound by our inherent humanness.”
Meet Jenn - The Full Human Being
Jenn is a bright personality and brings fullness into every room she walks into. She is naturally curious and incredibly empathic creating the perfect cocktail of wanting to know everything about you right away. She sees a human workplace as a healing workplace. One in which people are taking action to heal their own past traumas and relational, organizational, or systemic traumas that lurk ever-present as well. Jenn believes that when we see each other as humans, we gift accessibility and approachability to each other, especially those lower in organizational hierarchies. She emphasizes vulnerability as strength and underscores the importance of taking off the masks we all have a tendency to put on. Jenn is adamant that loyalty is bred from compassion and respect. She loves to see leaders lean into the discomfort of vulnerability because the magic of our humanity lies beyond.
How Jenn Can Help You Transform Your Organization
Jenn is a master at building relationships and connections. She joins A Human Workplace as a Facilitator and member of our community. She works formally as a peer support administrator, social worker, and therapist utilizing her gifts for question asking, trauma healing, and common ground seeking in every day. Jenn brings these same talents and capabilities to every conversation that she engages in.
Jenn specializes in dialogue aimed to heal the harms birthed from systemic oppression, institutionalized racism, and micro-aggressions. She believes that we have the potential to legitimately dismantle the foundations of inequality within organizations and her work is focused on energizing people to take action towards this superordinate goal in their own tangible ways. In her words, “as hope for equality, we have to focus on equity”. Jenn encourages everyone to recognize themselves as a person of culture. with a unique and rich story to tell about their heritage. When we start to see ourselves as people of culture, we will realize there is so much more that inherently binds us than separates us. Connect with Jenn.
Jenn’s Story
As is true with all of us, Jenn’s story starts before she was born. Her parents immigrated from Vietnam to America in 1975, deciding to move to Bellingham Washington after seeing a Reader’s Digest piece spotlighting the up-and-coming city. Jenn was born there and has lived in Washington for the vast majority of her life, now residing in South Seattle. She recognizes and honors that she lives on the Duwamish tribe’s native land.
Jenn, growing up as the daughter of immigrant refugees in a first-generation family living in a predominately white society, wrestled with the nuanced and often shrouded conversation of race and ethnicity early in her life. She recalls learning to code switch at an incredibly young age and feeling saddened and exhausted by the mental gymnastics performed to compartmentalize the two halves that made up her cultural mosaic. But instead of allowing this external pressure to conform to silence her thoughts about race in America, she used it as motivation to heal her own trauma and empower others to do the same. Now, Jenn has built her life and career around conversation rooted in healing the harms that happen as a byproduct of race being a social construct. She feels liberated to be in a community of people with a spectrum of color who are reflective of her values and life experiences.
She holds and a Bachelor’s in Human Services and a Master's in social work but it’s not the degrees that have most heavily shaped her learning or which she holds the most pride in. Instead, it’s the lived experiences and the lessons that have come through people that are most influential and meaningful to her. Jenn spent a good portion of her life as an activist and still considers herself one, but has adopted the method of honey rather than vinegar as the old adage goes. She is now a clinician in private practice serving predominantly BIPOC individuals.
Dismantling Systems of Oppression with Empathy
Jenn’s superpower is her empathy and her ability to hold space for other people. Close friends and colleagues describe her as empathetic, passionate, and heart-centered. She marries these natural talents, honed and sharpened over time, with her belief in equitable organizations as a reality within our lifetime and drive for dismantling systems of oppression that innately exist in America. Her tactics of turning this vision into reality include peer-supported confidential sessions, culture change, and encouraging the resilience that is formed in the context of relationships. She challenges leaders to invest in relationships and find ways to honor others as full humans. It is our awareness and care for our fellow man actionized on an individual level that will create a true and lasting impact. The sum of our collective movement is strong enough to change the tides of overwhelming inequity. Interesting in learning more about Jenn and the work she does? Reach out to her here.
Everything Else You Wish You Knew About Jenn
Jenn self describes as an eternal optimist, a hobby jumper, a nap lover, and always ready to bring the energy. She loves to keep busy with any sort of project including refinishing furniture, making kids Halloween costumes, and extensive, intricate Saturday brunches for friends. You can oftentimes find her making traditional Vietnamese cuisine with her family, husband Sean, and kids Sovann and Sophea. Her personal favorite is anything that includes noodles and soup. She laughs remembering the unusual 110+ degree days in Seattle in which she still ate piping hot soup. Perhaps her most recognizable trait is that Jenn is a lover of people. It’s evident from the moment one has the pleasure of meeting her. Interested in learning more? Connect with Jenn, she’s already excited to learn everything about you.
“Working with Jenn is inspirational. Jenn can push people outside their comfort zones and inspire growth but not in a scary or forceful way. It’s very natural.”
Interested in working with Jenn?
Share your request and she will be in touch.