Immigrant Conversations

In this special episode of Empowering conversationZ, we are reflecting back on one year of living through the pandemic. I take you to our early lockdown days, our fears, and what I learned from hundreds of immigrants I interacted with since then. I talk about their hidden immunity in overcoming the obstacles Covid-19 created for us. And I share a trick to stay hopeful and positive during the most difficult times.

As you know, we just turned one year old. If you haven’t listened to the past 30+ episodes, find us on your favorite app by searching Empowering conversationZ or through our page https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz

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As we are celebrating one year anniversary of the show, I am sharing the process, the fears, and the thing that got me to start the show a year ago. Listen and see how the thing can help you initiate something great!

and if you want to know about the obstacles along the way listen to some of the difficulties along the way listen to https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c421e15c/updates-and-changes

I am extra thankful to Dr. D my guest on the first episode, Dr. Nelson Chau my guest on the 3rd episode, and my great friends Salma Sarwary 2nd episode guest and Homa Taghizadeh 6th episode guest have been incredible supports during the early days. If you want to know more about them and the wisdom they shared with our community, go back and listen to their incredible journeys.

Here are Empowering conversationZ with

Dr.D https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c130cb4b/ez01-birth-of-a-miracle

Dr. Nelson Chau https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c0a6d889/ez03-on-attitude-for-climbing

Salma Sarwary https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c40c7bc6/ez02-from-horror-to-confidence

Homa Taghizadeh https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c3220ba2/ez06-story-of-a-refugees-sacrifice

Subscribe to our show on your favorite app by searching Empowering conversationZ or through our page https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz

With her law degree and a passion for the film industry, she moved to Los Angeles with a Fulbright scholarship hoping to go back despite her dad’s last-minute shocking advice. 10 years later, she is an independent film producer and writer of several documentaries as well as a podcaster on immigrant stories. In this episode, she talks about her journey and her difficulties as an immigrant in the film industry along with her passion for podcasting.

Bio: Sasha was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. After graduating from law school she started her career in a film production company based in Moscow. She served as head of the legal department and as a producer on the production of several feature films involving major Russian talent.

In 2010 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and came to Los Angeles to study film producing. She’s been working as a producer since.

Besides running the We The Aliens podcast, she is currently serving as an associate producer on a feature documentary Oleg about Oleg Vidov, the “Robert Redford of Soviet Union,“ who defected from USSR in 1985.

She is also working on a documentary feature of her own - I Clown You, a film about clowns, who work in hospitals in Israel. Yeah, it’s a thing.

Sasha holds a law degree from the State University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) and an MFA in Film Producing from the New York Film Academy (Los Angeles). She is a Fulbright Alumna

Link to We the Alien’s podcast: https://www.wethealienspod.com/links/

To read more about the I Clown you documentary visit: http://www.iclownyoudoc.com/

To Support I clown you project: https://www.documentary.org/project/i-clown-you

Sasha’s Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/W24DX3Vln9o

Sasha’s TikTok page: https://www.tiktok.com/@kapusterofficial?lang=en

Find Empowering conversationZ podcast: https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz

Covid has been traumatic for all of us especially immigrants coming from collective cultures. With over 20 years of psychotherapeutic and research experience with first and second-generation immigrants, Dr. Pavna Sodhi weighs in on what immigrants need to do to create mental resilience and manage the stress they are facing at the moment.

Her Bio: With over 20 years of psychotherapeutic and research experience, Dr. Sodhi has interacted with a multitude of populations in both clinical and academic spaces. Her professional background and personal narrative offer a unique research perspective on diaspora issues, sexual minorities, and immigrant mental health concerns. Dr. Sodhi's research has been featured in national and international scholarly journals and books.

Since 2011, She has developed and taught a variety of face-to-face, hybrid, and online undergraduate and graduate courses at the university and college level. Within these modalities of teaching, her role is more of a facilitator where she helps students share, collaborate, and nurture each other's learning. 

In addition to her teaching and clinical experiences, Dr. Sodhi stays current in her research by presenting at various conferences and publishing scholarly pieces. Based on her diverse clinical and research experiences, she wrote Exploring Immigrant and Sexual Minority Mental Health: Reconsidering Multiculturalism in 2017. The content of this book is supported by first- and second-generation narratives, who share their experiences of migration, overt/covert racism, trauma, identity formation, and mental health concerns. A theoretical framework: Diversity of Identity Formation Therapy (DIFT), specifically for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities is also introduced and exemplified in a family case study format.

•Insta : @sunotherapy

•Website: www.pavnaksodhi.com

Twitter: @DrPavnaKSodhi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavna-k-sodhi-67b81615/?originalSubdomain=ca

Book: https://www.routledge.com/Exploring-Immigrant-and-Sexual-Minority-Mental-Health-Reconsidering-Multiculturalism/Sodhi/p/book/9780415841870

Came from India to solely support his family and his 11 brothers and sisters. To help them financially so that they could attend college. Once here, he was isolated and rejected for his color, his heavy accent, and was ready to go back home when someone made a comment that changed many things for him. He stayed. He persevered. And now, he sees each challenge, discrimination, favoritism, and conflicting values as a learning opportunity. In this episode of Empowering conversationZ, he talks about the comment, his mindset, discrimination, and much more. My guest this week is Kam Gupta, Management consultant, and coach.

Bio: Kam Gupta is President of Continuous Improvement Technology, Inc. in the Chicago area. As a trained life and leadership coach, Kam helps individual clients and organizations create alignment with their objectives and tap into their unlimited potential. The success is based on the concepts of Energy Leadership and related energy assessments for sustainable transformation; a concept which has proven very powerful in creating dynamic and actionable strategic plans.

Kam has been a manufacturing and quality professional from the beginning of his career. Rising through the ranks, Kam has served as director and vice president at various companies, such as Harley Davidson, Eaton Corporation, Admiral Tool and Manufacturing. As a consultant and coach, Kam has helped over 100 companies worldwide, big, and small, in achieving success and creating memorable positive experiences.

Kam works with an energetic mission of doing everything with customer success in mind, followed by a memorable positive customer experience. On the non-profit front, Kam has held many leadership positions at various levels, such as ASQ national Board of Directors, Regional Director, Board of directors at fine arts institutions, and safe shelters. Kam has presented at many events, including featured keynote speaker and presenter in the US, Mexico, India, and Brazil. Kam holds a master’s degree in engineering management from MSOE, Milwaukee. Kam loves cooking and creates experientially memorable events combining joy in cooking, learning, and honing personal leadership skills all at the same time, collectively. He fluently speaks Russian and Hindi and is a beginner in conversational Spanish.

Suggested episode: EZ03 attitude for climbing https://www.mehrans.com/empowering-conversationz/episode/c0a6d889/ez03-on-attitude-for-climbing

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He was born deaf and migrated to Canada as an adult because he felt his country limited his growth for his physical disability. Once in Canada he was provided with opportunities to learn multiple languages and earn his PhD in special education. Now he teaches various courses on deaf culture and American sign language to deaf and hearing students in University of Alberta while being a role model to deaf especially deaf immigrants around the world. In this episode of Empowering conversationZ Dr.Rouzbeh Ghahreman, an immigrant from Iran shares his story of prejudice, obstacles in communication and offers our listeners with the wisdom they need to interact with other deaf individuals.

Link to our newsletter: https://mehrans.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6dfc4750bd3f20b3caae4503f&id=0329b857f8

Link to his youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=TdHMVdgoHOk&app=desktop

Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Deaf-Gain-Raising-Stakes-Diversity/dp/0816691223

Link to additional readings Rouzbeh wanted you to read: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/14/an-ng-kind-of-love/

http://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/zoom-focus-confession

https://archive.org/details/cihm_24533

Being the victim of sexual violence at a very young age, seeing the impact of the Rwandan genocide, and being discriminated against in her new home for her identity could be enough to traumatize someone for life but Empowering conversationZ guest chose to heal and create a refuge for others to heal.

Tabitha Mpamira is a mental health therapist, activist, motivational speaker, and consultant on sexual and gender-based violence with a long working history in the mental healthcare industry.

In 2015, Tabitha founded EDJA to provide free medical, legal, and mental health services to survivors of sexual assault in East Africa.

EDJA, now a program merged with Nyaka Global, has sparked rapid change in rural Uganda by supporting hundreds of survivors and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Tabitha’s work in this area has been widely recognized and vividly depicted in the documentary Victors: Singing to the Lions, which has been screened globally, including at the United Nations Association of New York. She was recognized by Global Citizen in 2018 when she won the People’s Choice Waislitz Award. Tabitha has been invited to speak across the globe; recent examples include her speech at the Vatican about the urgency of working to end sexual violence and her widely viewed TEDx Talk on the transforming or transferring of trauma. Tabitha is currently pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology with a specialization in sexual trauma. 

organization:https://nyakaglobal.org/

Her ted talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4loBphYCXI

Mehran shares the opportunities and the struggles she has encountered since she started the Empowering conversationZ podcast and its coincidence with the pandemic. She updates her audience on the changes they will see in the next 3 months and the reason behind her decision.

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It is hard to be stuck with a bad boss in this tough economy especially as an immigrant without support. That’s why Mehran, Career and communication coach for immigrants will address issues immigrants face in dealing with “bad bosses” especially the 3 most toxic ones: The people pleaser, the micromanager, and the Narcissist. And provides tips to deal with them and grow in their presence.

Mehran is a career and communication coach and founder of Empowering conversationZ. In addition to 5 years of professional coaching experience, she has a Masters in Biology with almost a decade in academia and industry. To know more about her visit www.MehranS.com

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Hungry for opportunity, she moved from Brazil to United States leaving behind her successful business back home. Once in the states she worked at Amazon “cutting tomatoes”, for which she was teased by friends and family, but her persistence paid off. This week Empowering conversationZ guest is Flavia Lemos. She is an award-winning brand strategist. She has enhanced the brand identity and generated over a $100M increase in sales for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. She compiled 23 years of expertise into a cohesive framework. The Rio Brand Strategy increases customer loyalty, accelerates growth, and leaves the competition behind.

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