Therapist and CandleX Founder Xiaojie Qin Finds Strength From Her Clients

Vivienne Tseng-Rush | May 24, 2023 10:33 am | Add a comment | 154 reads

It’s nearly the end of May and Beijing has been buzzing with so much activity that one might have missed that May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. In honor of that, we are choosing to feature mental health professionals who are making an impact on our expat community here in Beijing to thank them for the good work that they have devoted their lives to.

Born and raised in Sichuan, Xiaojie Qin has been in Beijing for over half of her life and calls the city home. She is a psychotherapist, certified in China and registered in Australia. Xiaojie is the founder and director of CandleX, a Beijing based mental health organization. She also co-founded Project A, and works with people who are recovering from abusive relationships. Besides mental health, Xiaojie is active in the yoga and mindfulness scene. Plus, she’s been a swing dancer for over a decade!

What’s On Your Mind?
What a great question! I try to be mindful of what is on my mind since it produces countless thoughts and ideas every minute. I try to exercise staying grounded in that space, and make conscious choices of which thoughts to act on.

This past year, I thought a lot about living in Beijing because a lot of my friends have moved away. I am aware of the impact it has on me, which makes me question whether I still want to live here in the long run. I also experimented with being a digital nomad in chunks of a few weeks each time. Interestingly, I come back to the same conclusion that Beijing is still home for me.

I have lived here for almost two decades now, and I am deeply rooted in the community, with my work in mental health, my weekly dancing, and my mindfulness practice groups. I love that the corner store owner in my neighborhood would always wave at me in the mornings and in the evenings. A few cafes that I work out of welcome me and my dog – Coconut – whom they love! Beijing has a lot to offer to people who are inspirational , talented, and passionate – whether it’s about their job or something they do on the side.

The past year, I attended quite a few home parties and had meaningful conversations which blossomed into friendships. I remember thinking to myself that it’s sad when friends leave, but Beijing has an open atmosphere to form new relationships.

At the end of the day, the movie of your life is edited by your chosen attention, and your attitude decides the genre of your own movie. I am a mental health profession, so I often take a temperature check of what’s on my mind, and I exercises mental focus, relaxation as I embrace the unfolding of my Beijing life.

What Motivates You To Get Moving?
I think I was born with a motor in me. Every hobby I have is an active one, whether it’s dancing, yoga, Brazilian jiujitsu, or diving. By nature, I move. That simple joy and flow when I move keeps me on the go.

Every now and then, I try to do something that’s sedentary, but it’s very hard for me. Maybe once a year, I go to the cinema. Once a while I would go crazy and think I could join my friends to do board games or drawing, or watch a show. In fact, I did go to one and now I’ve checked off my passive activity for the year.

Funnily enough, I do have a regular mindfulness practice, almost daily. I also go once a week to sit in a meditation group, and every now and then I go on a hardcore meditation retreat. That’s probably the only time that I learned to sit, and still return to do it time and time again.

On the professional level, I am doing what I love – being a therapist, and providing services via CandleX to support our Beijing community on mental health. One thing that keeps me going is always this profound idea by my role model Maya Angelou, “When you teach, you have to live your own teaching.” I reflected on it on CandleX’s 3 year anniversary in my letter “Living Your Teachings ”, and I still am aspired to live by it.