Beyond the Couch

This week, Sam chats with Cathay Che, LCSW, about how addiction impacts and shows up in the AAPI community. They discuss misconceptions about substance use and addiction, and how stigma and shame impact the way addiction is perceived within the AAPI population. They dive into the various ways addiction impacts the family network and how addiction can be addressed in both conventional and creative, novel ways.

Cathay Che is a Japanese American and Native Hawaiian LCSW, with a virtual Private Practice treating clients in New York, California and Rhode Island.  She earned her MSW from Columbia University in 2013 and was part of the clinical treatment team at The Hazelden Betty Ford outpatient clinic in New York City from 2012 -2020. Connect with Cathay on Zencare.

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie is back with Clarice Hassan to continue their conversation about new parenthood in the AAPI community, this time focusing on fathers and paternal mental health. They talk about the different challenges that new fathers face as they try to balance their new roles with the expectations of traditional masculinity from previous generations. They explore the different ways AAPI fathers might express affection, and they discuss the relative lack of support and community for new fathers when they do have questions about infant care and how to best tend to their spouse postpartum.

Clarice Hassan (she/her), LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California and New York, running both a private practice and a growing group practice, Phronetic Psychotherapy LCSW PC. She identifies as Asian and has focused on maternity and paternity mental health, as well as parenthood transitions, especially in the past few years since becoming a parent herself. Connect with Clarice: https://www.onlinetherapyny.org/

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie sits down with Clarice Hassan to discuss mental health within the context of new motherhood. Clarice shares how her own personal experiences of becoming a mother informed her passion to focus her work on maternity mental health. They delve into the challenges of balancing one’s aspirations and desires with the demands of this new, life-changing role. They also talk about navigating the differences in parenting values from those of the previous generation and how empowering it can be to learn, unlearn, remake, and discover new personal values along the way.

Clarice Hassan (she/her), LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California and New York, running both a private practice and a growing group practice, Phronetic Psychotherapy LCSW PC. She identifies as Asian and has focused on maternity and paternity mental health, as well as parenthood transitions, especially in the past few years since becoming a parent herself. Connect with Clarice: https://www.onlinetherapyny.org/

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie chats with Suzanne Eng about being in partnership with someone with ADHD. They talk about the challenges and strengths that ADHD brings to the relationship, as well as the various misconceptions surrounding the diagnosis. Suzanne shares her own experiences with a spouse with ADHD, and she offers ways to help others have greater empathy, better understand, and resolve conflicts more effectively with one another in order to thrive as a couple living with ADHD.

Suzanne Eng (she/her) is a wife, mother, daughter, therapist and friend. Brought up in Chicago and then moving to New York has taught her about the challenge of not just living but enjoying who she is despite difficult circumstances and to always be grateful. 

Connect with Suzanne:

• 24creativearttherapy.com 
• [email protected]
• @twentyfourcat

Mentioned in this episode:

• The ADHD Effect on Marriage by Melissa Orlov
• ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer’s World by Thom Hartmann

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie, Diana and Sam catch up on what they’ve been up to as they enter into the fall season. They reminisce about the feelings they used to get as they started a new school year, and Christie and Diana share what they’ve been realizing through their language classes. They all discuss their evolving relationships to work and productivity, and the importance of having a sense of purpose and personal definition of success.

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Diana sits down with Priscilla Chin to talk about psychoanalysis, its misconceptions, and the differences between psychoanalysis and other modalities. They discuss the various techniques and interventions that are used in analysis; how it can help explore our internal worlds, past, and unconscious thoughts; and how it can empower people of color to take control of their own narratives.

Priscilla Chin, LCSW (she/her) is a therapist, psychoanalyst, and a group practice owner for a culturally responsive online therapy practice in New York, New Jersey, and DC. Learn more about Priscilla at imagineemotionalwellness.com or @imagineemotionalwellness

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie, Diana, and Sam share their views on the moral and ethical questions posed in a couple therapy-related posts from Reddit’s “Am I the A*hole” thread. They discuss one person’s dilemma about sharing details from his therapy session to his concerned mother, and another case in which the poster is concerned about the changes he is noticing in his partner after she begins seeing a therapist.

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Diana is back with Lynn Min to talk about money and how our finances shape so much of our identity, sense of freedom, and, ultimately, our ability to return to our true selves. They discuss their relationships to money and the ways in which they’ve crafted their money stories throughout their lives.

Lynn Min (she/her), LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor, a certified life coach, a pastor, and a mom of three. Connect with Lynn at lynnmin.com or @soulmattersllc

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie, Sam, and Diana talk about their relationships to each of their ancestral languages and the grief they feel from not being as fluent as they’d like. Christie and Diana share what they’ve been learning through their respective language classes and explore what it means to be connected (or not) to a culture through language. Sam reflects on her recent trip to Japan and what it meant to be able to have even some simple conversations, as well as how she’s navigated her biracial identity throughout her life.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

This week, Christie is rejoined by Nita Batta and Tiffany Momoko Kindred to discuss what it’s like for children to try to make sense of their identity, grow up between multiple cultures, and balance individual and others’ needs. They also talk about redefining familial relationships and how to retain a sense of self and leading with curiosity as a parent.

Nita Batta, LMSW | The pull lies in the strength of the familiar; the push is an urge to create space and jump into the unfamiliar. As an individual who was raised between two cultures, I offer a warm and safe space to discuss cultural competency as it relates to your life. Connect with Nita at [email protected]

Tiffany Momoko Kindred, LMSW | Being biracial and bicultural, I understand the complexities of holding multiple identities. I walk alongside individuals and couples to help them explore and gain an understanding of how their past has led them to their present, and how they want to move from the present into a happier, more fulfilling future. Connect with Tiffany at [email protected]

 
Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.
Find a Therapist
Join our Clinician Community

Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.
@bridgesmentalhealth
[email protected]
buymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh