Meet Dr. JM

Dr. JM is a psychologist licensed in the states of New York and California. He also maintains his Maryland and ASPPB E.Passport-APIT licenses that allow his clients to continue therapy when traveling to PSYPACT participating states. Dr. JM completed a year of graduate study in Mental Health Counseling at Boston College, a M.S.Ed. in Counseling and Mental Health Services at University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at University of Minnesota, all highly rated counseling programs and institutions. He is certified as a Skilled Cognitive Behavioral Therapist in the Community Setting by the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. For several years, Dr. JM served as a clinical supervisor, educator, consultant, and staff psychologist at Johns Hopkins University providing psychotherapy as well as supervising and teaching predoctoral psychology residents. Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. JM had worked and trained in a variety of clinical settings in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Washington and California. Early in his career, Dr. JM was a teacher and counselor in Taiwan and then an experienced community mental health therapist for several years in Philadelphia.

Dr. JM (he/him/his)

  • Greetings! I am Dr. Jian-Ming “JM” Hou, Ph.D. — better known as Dr. JM. —

    As a practitioner with over two decades of experience in the helping profession, I have had a multitude of counseling and therapy experience in university counseling centers, community-based outpatient clinics and K-12 schools. Professional roles in my early career as a teacher, counselor, and community mental health therapist have made my scholar-psychologist career path somewhat unusual (and gave me a little grey hair). The unique multi-year experience working with diverse children, teens/parents, adults and older adults led me to pursue a PhD in counseling psychology; knowing "why" and "how" to integrate research, theory, and practice have also become second nature to me. It often brings a smile to my face when clients and colleagues share feedback like "You have an unusual depth and breadth of clinical insight!"

    My main passion as a counseling psychologist is to provide evidence-based psychotherapy and clinical supervision/education. I have also enjoyed leading CBT-Based Skill Development Groups, ACT-Based Psychoeducational Groups for anxiety and depression, as well as identity-based interpersonal process groups, including Men's Therapy Groups and In-Betweenness Therapy Groups. As a researcher and educator, my passion lies in practitioner development, clinical supervision, and fostering resilience for those in the helping, teaching, and health professions. Therefore, one of the greatest joys in my practice is to help my clients bounce back from burnout and assist them toward reaching a more fulfilling work/life harmony. You may find my peer-reviewed articles in the Publications section.

    Outside of my practice, I enjoy spending quality time with my family and fellowship with close friends. You can also find me traveling to new places, learning about local cultures, and exploring various types of traditional/fusion cuisines with an innate curiosity. If you chat with me for a little bit, it won't be long until you discover my two loves: biking and coffee. Bike riding is always good, especially on a sunny day when I can smell the warm breeze; a daily (grind+brew) coffee ritual is a way of knowing I am having a healthy dose of “me time.'' In fact, there is nothing better than pairing coffee with jazz, bossa nova, hymns or ... ocean waves.

I view therapy as a transformative adventure, where clients have inside themselves what it takes to pull through and bounce back.

— Inspired by my research of highly resilient therapists