Asians Do Therapy
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27/01/2023
19/01/2023
04/10/2022
New podcast episode!
In this conversation, I speak with Vickie Ya-Rong Chang (she/her).
I got connected to Vickie because I wanted to speak to a clinician who had been working with clients and had expertise on climate anxiety and despair.
The psychological and emotional impact of climate change is irrefutable. Research shows that with increased temperatures, our baseline level of distress also increases. Not to mention the acute trauma and post traumatic stress of climate disasters that destroy lives and livelihoods.
Vickie mentions a few ways that we can “treat” climate anxiety. The courage it takes to face and feel what we have done and how we can stay present while taking action.
And, our conversation takes me to an unexpected place.
Vickie, in her being and wisdom, reminded me of the earth of my body and that maybe, like others, my greatest attachment wound is the disconnection and alienation from mother earth.
I hope you enjoy our conversation and it speaks to something in you.
Find it on Spotify and Apple podcast.
Drop me a line and let me know what you think.
The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Vickie Ya-Rong Chang (she/her) was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In her work as a psychologist and group facilitator, she is dedicated to personal = collective liberation. A core team member of East Point Peace Academy, her work focuses on the Fierce Vulnerability Network, a national constellation of direct action teams positioned at the intersection of climate justice and racial healing. In her individual and group support work, she works primarily with BIPOC and Asian immigrants, offering awareness and somatic practices. She is strengthened by her connection to the Chinese ancestral lineage including Wudang Mountains; and to the people, culture, and land of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and Arunachula in Tiruvannamalai, India. To connect to her, visit www.vickiechangphd.com and learn about her work at East Post Peace Academy https://www.eastpointpeace.org/retreat_reflections.
Some resources in comments.
30/08/2022
For many of us, children of the diaspora, we spent a lot of time alone.
Alone in our rooms, alone during meals, alone in our thoughts, alone in our feelings.
How have you coped with all that aloneness?
What has that aloneness done to you?
Perhaps:
• you have become highly independent
• you devalue relationships
• you avoid being alone at all costs
• you live in your head, in your imagination
• forming and maintaining relationships might be difficult
• social activities might produce anxiety
• closeness with others might feel threatening
• you experience people as intrusive/troublesome
• you ignore your longings for connection
Often, in therapy, part of the work is undoing the aloneness - letting others in, allowing yourself to need them, feeling close to them - starting with the therapist.
17/08/2022
“Eating disorders is a disorder of disconnection”
Listen to our full conversation on Spotify and Apple Podcast.
26/07/2022
New podcast episode!!
In this episode, I speak with Rosa Lim (she/her) who is a clinical psychologist based in NYC.
We cover a lot in 45 minutes. Rosa and I talk about:
·the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating,
·how eating disorders is a disorder of disconnection,
·the correlation of trauma and eating disorders,
·how eating disorders develop,
·the kinds of treatments available and what healing looks like,
·what to look for in a clinician,
·what could be helpful in preventing eating disorders,
·and how our experiences of immigration, food, and language intersects with the development and treatment of eating disorders.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, there might be information in this episode that might evoke strong reactions. At times you might feel understood and hopeful; and at other times, you might feel defeated and scared. Whatever this conversation brings up, my hope is that you can be gentle with yourself and know that healing is possible even if challenging.
Eating disorders are a serious condition. Bulimia and anorexia can be life threating.
As with any health condition, there is not a single, sure way to address it. Please do your research and enlist friends and family to help in the process whether reading books, listening to podcasts, or finding a clinician or clinicians.
Here are the resources that Rosa mentions on the podcast:
·National Eating Disorders Association
·Academy of Eating Disorders
·Eating Disorder Anonymous
Rosa Lim, PhD, (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist in NYC who has worked in private practice and in college counseling for the past 20 years. Currently, she is involved with the William Alanson White Institute’s Eating Disorders, Compulsions, and Addictions program, as both a member of the steering committee and as guest faculty. She can be contacted at [email protected].
If you found this podcast helpful, share it with friends.
20/07/2022
22/06/2022
With love.
07/06/2022
Hi folks,
It has been a long time since I introduced myself.
Perhaps like some of you, I haven’t been able to figure out what the right relationship to social media is for me. While I want to share my thoughts, feelings, learnings, and wonderings with you, I am also a relatively private person. The conflict between wanting to be known and wanting to hide. But I know it’s valuable to know who is sharing and what they are about.
So, here I am.
My name is Yin (they/she). I am a psychotherapist in private practice. That just means I work for myself, as a solo practitioner not a part of a clinic or agency or institution. I work almost exclusively with Asians and Asian Americans. The experiences of the Asian diaspora is of great interest to me and central to my work. How have our particular experiences shaped our psyche, our sense of self, our ways of relating to others and to the world.
I also host a podcast of the same name, Asians Do Therapy. Episodes are released sporadically. 😄
Lastly, I really enjoy speaking to the general public (universities, corporate ERGs. community orgs) on Asian American Mental Health and related topics. And, I appreciate opportunities to provide trainings for primarily white and non-Asian therapists on “how to work” with Asian and Asian American clients. When we have more culturally informed care, more of us will seek and stay in therapy as a healing and growth resource.
There was an earlier post about my background, how I came to be a therapist, and why I started . I’ll put that post in stories and highlights.
Oh, and I love flowers and dogs!
Drop me a line. Let me know what topics you would like to see here and what are your favorite flowers.
In community,
Yin
26/05/2022
16/03/2022
25/02/2022
From Jhumpa Lahiri's book, In Other Words.
14/02/2022
❤️💔❤️🩹
02/02/2022
16/01/2022
In public discourse and even in our own minds, Asian parents are often portrayed as "tiger" parents, unemotional, demanding, and overly critical. Or, they are portrayed as self-sacrificing, hard-working, a survivor/hero of sorts.
While these portrayals are not inaccurate for some Asian parents or parts of them, they are stereotypes. And, as with any stereotype, these portrayals are limiting and harmful.
One particular way in which they are harmful is that abusive and neglectful behavior can get overlooked and coded as “typical” Asian parenting.
And, the polarized nature of these portrayals can lead to polarized responses and relationships. “Tiger” parents are automatically bad and self-sacrificing parents are automatically good. Therefore, one can either submit or rebel against the "tiger" parents. And, on the other end of the spectrum, one can be either grateful / indebted or ungrateful / selfish towards the self-sacrificing parents.
The reality is so much more complicated.
Part of our work is to clarify, be with, and make meaning of the complicated.
10/01/2022
This comic reveals many of the preconceived ideas about therapy:
• The therapist is a ‘white’, older man
• The therapist has a professional and somewhat distant, unemotional presence
• The client lies down
• The client regresses to a child state
• The client vents about parents
The "reality" or at least caveats are as follow:
• While a majority of therapists are white identified. Therapists are getting more diverse in race, class, age and life experience than ever before. Data shows that Asian American therapists represent 1.5% to 4.5% of all therapists. I know it’s a wide range but 4.5% is promising.
• There is a new wave of therapists who believe in bringing more of themselves and their lived experiences into the therapy room while remaining professional. Many share on IG. Therapists are specializing in areas that are deeply important to them: anti-colonial, liberatory, immigrants, working class, polyamory, q***r, fertility, etc
• Therapy is about restoring one’s humanity given the coping mechanism we have developed in the face of neglect, abuse, trauma, racism, misogyny, etc... While there are distant and stoic therapists, this stance often leaves the client alone. I find that an effective therapist shows up in their own humanity.
• Generally, it is only in a very specific type of therapy called psychoanalysis where the client lies down. And, only if it is agreed between the therapist and client. Most of my clients sit on the coach, now they sit or stand wherever they have privacy for online sessions.
• While at times adult clients do go into a vulnerable place that might feel childlike, the therapist’s role is to help clients not be overwhelmed by the experience and to help them feel resourced, then process and integrate what they are experiencing with their adult self and mind.
• You will very likely talk about your parents. It's not about venting nor is the goal to blame or shame or absolve them, the goal is understand how your early relational experiences impacted you and how they might be showing up in your present life in ways that are no longer serving to you.
Hope this helps.
11/12/2021
New podcast episode!
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.
Full episode in link bio. You can also find it on Spotify, Apple Podcast and Stitcher.
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.
Connect with Michelle
There are licenses (Psychologist, LMFT, LPC, LCSW, MD) and degrees (PhD, PsyD, MA, MD) and there are terms that mental health clinicians use to describe themselves (counselor, therapist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst).
For the different licenses and degrees explanation, see a prior post in the feed.
Below is a brief overview of how a clinician might describe themselves:
A clinician might use the term counselor if their work is more short term, solution focused, or focused on skill development. The theoretical orientation might be more behavioral focused like CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) or DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy).
Some clinicians might use therapist and counselor interchangeably. And, some might use therapist as a short hand for psychotherapist (see below). Or, some might use therapist as a catch all word regardless of their license, degree, or style of therapy.
A clinician might call themselves a psychotherapist because their style of therapy is more focused on getting to the underlying issues of symptoms/distress and helping the client understand themselves better in the process. Psychotherapists might draw from various theoretical orientations. Despite our popular understanding of the word psycho, it comes from Greek word psyche which generally translates to soul, spirit, mind.
Some clinicians will call themselves psychoanalysts because they practice a style of therapy that focuses on understanding the client’s unconscious called psychoanalysis. In psychoanalysis, the client might lie down on the couch and might see their analyst multiple types a week. To become a psychoanalyst, the clinician will generally go through additional post graduate training (years) and their own analysis.
I know. This is confusing and frustrating especially when you just want to find support.
The best thing to do is to ask the clinician how they work, what their style is, what their expectations of you is, how they would help you with what you are struggling with…
Check link in bio, “How to find the right therapist” for additional questions to ask potential therapists you are considering.
Less than of half of the eligible Asian and Asian Americans are registered to vote.
While there are structural barriers that contribute to the low Asian voter turnout, there is also the issue of belonging.
Regardless of how long you have lived in the United States or any “western” country, you might feel like you don’t belong.
You don’t see yourself represented on most aspects of public life. Political parties don’t reach out to you. You don’t feel spoken to and you don’t feel spoken for. How then do you care for and invest in a system and in a country that doesn’t welcome you, doesn’t see you, doesn’t represent you, doesn’t hear you, and doesn’t speak to you?
Not voting might be an unconscious protest of sorts or a defeated, reluctant acceptance of what is.
The thing is that Asian Americans are the fastest growing sector of the American electorate.
Make your presence known by voting. Belonging can be claimed.
For AAPI voting information and resources, check out
As a psychotherapist and as a client in therapy, I am a believer that good therapy is a gateway to healing and growth.
But even the best of therapy cannot protect us from a burning world and the impunity of greed and hate.
Please vote. Our mental health depends on it.
To register to vote,
To volunteer and/or donate,
Research shows that when we put emotions into words, it eases emotional distress.
The issue is that often we lack the ability, practice, and the actual words to identify and translate our internal emotional experience into words.
For those of us who grew up speaking a different language or grew up speaking multiple, certain emotions might also be lost in translation.
To help us be more familiar with the English language of emotions, the second image shows a mood meter with feeling words to describe emotions by degree of intensity and pleasantness. To be clear, no emotion is negative per se even when they are unpleasant. This mood meter was developed by the Yale’s Center of Emotional Intelligence.
2 ways to practice:
• Ask yourself, how are you feeling in this moment? Try to look for the word in the mood meter that can describe your emotional experience. Note that emotions also change moment to moment, hour to hour…
• Pick a word and try to notice its nuance. What’s the difference between frightened and nervous? Or, disappointed and discouraged? Or, motivated and excited?
This mood meter is just one tool with one set of feeling words, it’s not comprehensive but I find it helpful given how it’s organized. The third image is the emotional wheel with its own set of words and it’s organized by what some say are the 6 primary emotions: love, joy, surprise, sadness, fear, and anger.
The quality of your mental health depends on your relationship to your emotions. Befriend them.
To help befriend your emotions, take stock on what your beliefs about emotions are and where they come from.
What have you learned about emotions?
For many of us growing up in immigrant families, emotions were probably seen as not important, not necessary for survival (we don’t have time or energy for this) or too dangerous for survival (don’t create trouble, don’t stand out). And, while emotions might have not been talked about directly, they were probably acted upon. They might have been expressed through silence, volatility, aggression, sacrifice. And, the desire to explicitly talk about emotions might have been dismissed as a Western thing.
What have you learned about certain emotions?
For those who were socialized as female, anger or assertiveness might have been frowned upon to express and reserved for those with male bodies. For those socialized as male, fear and vulnerability might have been ridiculed. For those in faith communities, desire or envy might have been considered a sin. Depending on your cultural background and family of origin norms, certain emotions might have been more valued compared to others. All this socialization and conditioning might lead you to have more ease with or default to certain emotions compared to others. And, you might also avoid particular emotions at all costs.
We internalize what we see, what we are told, and how we are made to feel. And, what we internalize becomes the unwritten, unconscious beliefs or truths in which we operate by.
By unpacking and revealing your beliefs about emotions and how they came to be, you can bring them into full awareness and wonder if they are indeed the truths that you want to live by. Maybe these truths are no longer serving you, too limiting and too oppressive.
Emotions. Friend or Foe?
The quality of your mental health depends on your relationship to your emotions.
So, are your emotions your friend or your foe?
If you grew up coping with your own emotions and/or hyper aware of others’ emotions, or code switching between cultures and contexts, or suppressing emotions for safety and acceptance, or indulging in emotions as a temporary salve, emotions can feel foreign like a stranger, or scary like an intruder, or an enemy to be silenced.
How do you befriend your emotions?
In the next few posts, I’ll post some ideas on how to befriend your emotions.
While IG is not therapy, my hope is to make therapeutic ideas and practices more accessible.
Follow along.
David Chang is a Korean-American restaurateur, author, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. He is also the creator, producer and host of the Netflix original series, Ugly Delicious.
He talked about his mental health on his podcast, the David Chang Show (episode 8).
Some highlights of the episode:
• David has been going to therapy with the same psychiatrist since 2003
• He struggles with impostor syndrome, self-doubt, depression
• He talked about his resistance in therapy
• Starting Momofuku was a way for him to fight off his depression
• He wants people to know that there is hope and you need to find what works for you
Most recently, with the release of his new memoir “Eat a Peach”, David shares his experiences living with bipolar disorder, battling periods of depression, manic episodes, anger issues and suicidal thoughts. He says, “I’m a work in progress. I'm still at it. I'm still here."
“Eat a Peach” is available September 8th.
Good mental health is not the absence of a mental health disorder, illness or diagnosis. Nor is it the absence of difficult, negative feelings.
Good mental health is
• Ability to feel, identify, express and manage a range of emotions, both positive and negative
• Ability to cope with and handle change and uncertainty
• Ability to form and maintain satisfying relationships with ourselves and others
• Ability and opportunity to learn, grow, and self-actualize
• Having a sense of agency and choice
Unfortunately, good mental health doesn’t just come to us. Like learning a new language or training for a marathon, good mental health takes time, commitment, and work to be cultivated.
Therapy is one powerful way to cultivate good mental health. Additional ways include journaling, a mindfulness practice, building community, 12 step programs, exercise, time in nature…
How are you cultivating good mental health?
New podcast episode!
In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Jenjee Sengkhammee (she/her), a Hmong American psychologist in Portland, Oregon.
We talked about her Hmong heritage, the range of responses from Asian people to the Black Lives Matter movement, how white supremacy affects Asian people, and the position we, as Asian people, have been placed within the white supremacy system.
These are big, complex, difficult, nuanced subjects that need a lot more time than 40 minutes to unpack and come to terms with. And, while our conversation might just be scratching the surface, maybe even uncomfortable to listen to at times, raising more questions than answers, my hope is that it normalizes the some of the feelings you might be having.
And, that maybe, we can begin to wonder what it means to be Asian American outside of the role that white supremacy has put us in.
You can find this episode in the link bio. It’s also on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Stitcher.
There is also an accompanying medium article in the link bio that provides more context for this conversation, and additional reading and listening materials that I have found helpful.
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/
As Asians and Asian Americans, we are simultaneously victims and perpetrators, or at the very least participants, in the system of white supremacy.
It’s a challenging reality to hold. It causes cognitive dissonance.
To alleviate this dissonance, some of us might be more attached to our oppression and resist acknowledging our relative privilege in this system. Some of us might feel deep shame and guilt that propel us into action, disavowing or minimizing our own oppression and dehumanization. And, for some of us, the dissonance is paralyzing, keeping us silent and on the sidelines.
A way out of this cognitive dissonance is to hold a BOTH / AND mindset and explore both roles: the victim and the perpetrator/participant.
The “truth” is somewhere in between depending on your immigration or refugee experience and status, your social and economic class, where you grew up, your gender identity, your sexual orientation, your skin tone, how “assimilated” you appear to those in power, how disposable you are to those in power, your experiences and awareness of racial trauma…
Healing and growth begin with our ability to see and acknowledge the reality about ourselves.
White supremacy is the system that values whiteness, white bodies, and all that is associated with it (aesthetics, manners of speech, behaviors, food, etc) as superior than all other races, cultures and bodies.
White supremacy is in the air we breathe. It goes beyond being asked where we are from. It is the invisible narrator that dictates how you feel about yourself, the doubts and fears you have, your choice in career, who you find attractive, how safe you feel to speak up, how free you feel walking, hiking, running, if you are heard or not, if you feel seen or not, how connected you feel to your body, what opportunities are available to you, how worthy and valued you feel, how hard you try, how much anger and grief you hold, and even what you long for….
While difficult, enraging, sad, confusing and maybe even paralyzing, I encourage us to inquire and process how white supremacy has impacted us, infiltrating our individual and collective psyche.
This reflection can help us be more conscious of its harm, the ways we participate in it, and hopefully make choices that are restorative to our humanity and that of our fellow Black, Latinx, and Indigenous folks.
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