Jonah Li is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma. Previously he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in counseling psychology from the University of Denver and Indiana University, respectively. His teaching, research, and clinical interests focus on positive and existential psychological experiences.

Regarding his teaching, he has taught multiple undergraduate courses, including Positive Psychology and Existential Psychology, using multiple methods such as role plays, personal experiments, controversial conversations, reflective journals, and psychotherapy videos.

His research program seeks to promote resilient and optimal psychological experiences among diverse and minority groups multiculturally, with topics including character strengths, hope, happiness, meaning and purpose in life, well-being, flourishing, and mental health. He has authored 25 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has developed quantitative instruments, such as The Agency Scale (Li & Wong, 2025) and the Existential Meaninglessness Scale (Li et al., 2022).

His clinical approach draws upon positive and existential perspectives to promote resilience and optimal psychological experiences among multicultural groups. Examples include his use of the Strength-Centered Therapy (Li et al., 2019; Li & Wong, 2021) and the Mandarin Gratitude Group (Li et al., 2024).

‍