Asians Do Therapy

In this conversation, I speak with Linda Thai (she/hers). Linda is a Vietnamese Australian trauma and somatic therapist currently living in Alaska. 

I was very intrigued by Linda's work. She is writing and researching about the intersections of trauma, healing and adult children of refugees, specifically Vietnamese refugees. 

Some of what we touched upon in this conversation:

• Naming the losses of adult children of those who sought refuge
• The need for clinicians to have "a bigger frame" in which to understand our experience
• What somatic therapy is and what it might look like 
• The importance of reclaiming cultural strengths and recognizing our resilience

I hope this conversation moves you. And, that it provides you with some understanding and compassion of your experience, of the experience of Vietnamese folks, and of those who have sought and continue to seek refuge.

Linda Thai (she/her) is a trauma and somatic therapist. After surviving post war Vietnam, her family sought refuge in Australia.  She is a storyteller, freelance educator, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and assists Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, an internationally renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, in his workshops.  Linda also offers her own training and workshops. One of her trainings is called, Unnameable Losses: The Unmetabolized Ambiguous Grief of Adult Children of Refugees. You can find Linda at www.linda-thai.com and https://www.facebook.com/LindaThaiCoachingConsulting.

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In this conversation, Navin shares with me his experiences in therapy and answers some of my questions:

• Why talking to a therapist has been different for him from talking to family and friends
• Why feeling his emotions has been so valuable
• What happened when he started working with an Asian American therapist
• Why was it important for him to tell his parents about being in therapy.  Navin provides a very helpful, 2 part decision matrix so you can decide if you want to tell your parents
• Why feeling dependent on his therapist has actually been a good thing
• What has changed for him after being therapy

I really enjoyed my conversation with Navin. He shared so many valuable insights in what has come up for him in therapy as an Asian American.  I hope our conversation gives you a better understanding of what can happen in therapy.

Navin Kadaba (he/him) identifies as a South Asian American man. As a child of Indian Immigrants growing up in predominantly white environments, he's been on a lifelong journey to explore and experience his full self as an Asian-American. Navin's background in science & technology brought him to Google with aspirations of building products, but his passion for people and values of empathy and equity led him to People Operations where he manages an HR team. Both inside and outside work, Navin enjoys connecting with people and having tough conversations about racial identity, cultural context, and civic engagement. At home, Navin dedicates himself to caring for his partner (involving a lot of cooking) and tending to their canine companion.

#AsiansDoTherapy #NoStigma

In this conversation, I speak with Hatty about what brings our Asian and Asian Americans clients into therapy specifically as it relates to family. 

We talk about how early childhood experiences and family dynamics impact our clients in their present lives. We talk about parentified children, childhood trauma and neglect, the pressure and threats that adult children experience, intergenerational grief and what happens in therapy can be helpful to clients. 

We also address two questions that folks had sent in towards the end of the episode:

• How to get away from parents who guilt children into overwork for the sake of the family and the idea that I must make lots of money to make my ancestors proud?
• How to deal with family members who knows you are in therapy but are not supportive and ask “why one session hasn’t cured you”?

I hope our conversation normalizes some of your experiences you might have had and/or continue to have in your families. And, that while not easy, relief and healing is possible. 

Hatty J. Lee (she/her) is a marriage and family therapist and Brainspotting practitioner who has been practicing for over a decade. As the founder of a thriving group practice in Los Angeles, California, she has met with over a thousand people from diverse backgrounds in psychotherapy, counseling groups, and wellness workshops. She supports people to deepen connection with themselves and the most important people in their lives. She is the co-creator of @indwell.guide (a guidebook on navigating your mental health) and also writes about various mental health topics on her Instagram account @hattyjlee. Her work has been featured in multiple editorials, including Women's Health Magazine and Reader's Digest.

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In this conversation, I speak with Michelle. Michelle is a writer, a mental health advocate, a partner, mother, an immigrant, a takeout kid.  And, she was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in her early 20s. 

We talked about her family dynamics, the legacy of trauma and abuse she experienced, how the mental health system failed her and what can go wrong in the therapist / client relationship.

We also discussed the difference between treated and untreated mental illness and why it’s so important to separate trauma from culture. 

It is a very honest conversation and I so appreciate Michelle for her openness and vulnerability.

I hope this conversation helps to normalizes mental health, mental illness, being in therapy and/or taking medication. #AsiansDoTherapy #NoStigma

Michelle Yang (she/her) MBA, is a mental health advocate who speaks and writes about the intersection of Asian American identity, feminism, and mental health. Tired of the stigma, she is empowered to humanize and normalize mental illnesses as another part of the human condition. Born ethnic Chinese in South Korea, Michelle immigrated to the US at the age of 9, therefore straddling different cultures and navigating identities is her default. She is a proud "takeout kid," who grew up working in her family's Chinese restaurant honing a scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit. Her articles have been featured in InStyle, Reader's Digest, HuffPost, Shondaland, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and more. Michelle is also busy at work on her memoir, How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love. 

 Michelle identifies as a body-positive, cis-gendered woman. She is in a fulfilling and committed opposite-sex marriage with her grad-school sweetheart. They are raising a hilarious 7-year-old nature wizard and an incorrigible rescue pup. 

Follow Michelle @michelleyangwriter

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In this conversation, I speak to with Jenjee Sengkhammee PhD about 

• the diversity in the Asian American identity and experiences
• the range of responses from Asian people to the Black Lives Matter movement 
• how white supremacy affects Asian Americans 
• the position we have been placed within the white supremacy system. 

Dr. Jenjee Sengkhammee (she/her) identifies as a Hmong American woman raised in the United States. As a woman of color from a poor refugee family, her experiences of culture and racial identity have shaped her understanding of the world. She is a licensed psychologist in Portland, Oregon. She owns a private practice, Heart & Mind Cultural Counseling and Training, where she provides culturally-oriented psychotherapy with individuals and couples, consults with mental health agencies, and supervises psychologist trainees. Dr. Sengkhammee is interested in understanding the role of culture and identity in our life experiences, addressing racial trauma and microaggressions therapeutically, and the role of mental health self-care in living and healing. http://www.drjenjees.com/

For more context of this conversation and additional reading and listening resources, check out this medium article.

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In this conversation, I speak with Anneliese Singh PhD, LPC (she/they) about racial healing strategies from her book, The Racial Healing Handbook. 

Dr. Singh says that racism is the greatest trauma that we live with and that navigating racism is not sufficient.  We need to wake up, we to learn about racism, we need to grieve and we need to hope.

We discuss racial identity development, racial socialization, the grieving process, race in the therapy room, and what fuels Dr. Singh’s hope for racial liberation for all.  We also get personal and share our own experiences of race, racism and where we are in our racial healing journey.

Anneliese A. Singh (she/her/hers and they/them/theirs) PhD, LPC, is currently serving as the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and professor at the University of Georgia's Department of Counseling and Human Development and will be the Chief Diversity Officer/Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Tulane University in July of 2020. Dr. Singh's research, practice, and advocacy center on racial healing, resilience of trans and non-binary people (e.g., people of color, youth), survivors of trauma, immigrants, South Asian survivors of child sexual abuse, social justice and empowerment training, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work in higher education. Anneliese is a prolific writer, with more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other professional publications. Her books include The Racial Healing Handbook and the Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook.

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Jenny and I talk about what anxiety is, how it manifests and offer some concrete suggestions on how to lessen it during this pandemic.

Dr. Jenny Wang is a first generation, Taiwanese American licensed psychologist in Texas and North Carolina. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors in finance and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her passion for psychology and the realization that few Asian Americans pursued psychology as a lifelong career led her to pursue her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. During her graduate training, she was a teaching assistant, graduate student mentor, and Chief Resident of the clinical psychology graduate program. After completing her PhD, she went on to complete her postdoctoral training at the Duke University Medical Center where she was also on faculty. Dr. Wang currently has a private practice in Houston, Texas where she works exclusively with women’s mental health issues across the lifespan. She is extremely passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental health in Asian communities and runs the Instagram account, @asiansformentalhealth, to promote awareness regarding Asian American mental health needs and unique immigrant experiences.

If you are looking for an Asian / Asian American therapist, visit the directory Jenny spearheaded at https://www.asianmhc.org/apida

And, if you have trouble finding a therapist, email me at [email protected] and I can try to help you find one.

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Aimée and I talk about her journey in therapy with five different therapists and the various seasons of therapy.

We talked about blue M&Ms, her Chinese father’s view on therapy, what didn’t work for her in therapy, how she chose her current therapist of six years and what has been helpful to her in therapy.

Aimée Suen (she/her) is a mixed raced (Chinese, French, Canadian, Norwegian, Irish) multifaceted creator and practitioner. As a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, she helps people cut through the noise of the health and wellness world to find what truly works for them and their bodies, one small step at a time. She does this through one on one client work and through her podcast, The Small Steps Podcast.

You can find out more about Aimée at her website and follow her on Instagram.

For questions, email [email protected].

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Welcome to Asians Do Therapy, conversations with Asians and Asian Americans on both sides of the couch!

What to expect from the podcast.

Send your questions to [email protected].