ASIAN MENTAL HEALTH BLOG
Writing on Asian identity, family dynamics, and the work of becoming yourself.
Honest, specific, and written for 1.5 and 2nd generation Asian immigrants who are done with generic advice.
I write about the things my clients bring into sessions. The guilt that surfaces when you try to want something different. The anger that has been building for years without a name. The family dynamics that shaped you before you knew they were shaping you.
The topics are specific because the experiences are specific. If you have ever felt like mainstream mental health content was not really written for you, you are probably right. This is.
Why Self-Care Doesn’t Work When You’re Stuck in Survival Mode (7 Mistakes That Keep You Burned Out)
Self-care should help you feel better—but what if it doesn’t? If you feel stuck in survival mode, constantly overthinking, and still burned out despite doing all the “right” things, this might be why.
Why You Can’t Slow Down: Burnout, Self-Care, and the Pressure to Always Be Productive
You know you need rest, but slowing down feels uncomfortable. Instead of recharging, you feel guilty, anxious, or like you should be doing more. This article explores why burnout is not just about doing too much, but about deeper patterns shaped by upbringing, culture, and self-worth and how to start building a healthier relationship with rest and self-care.
How to Regulate Your Nervous System: 8 Life Habits to Feel Calm and Grounded
Nervous system regulation is not about forcing yourself to be calm. It is about creating conditions where your body feels safer and more balanced. These are the daily habits that helped me feel more grounded, connected, and present in my body.
How to Cope with Loneliness: 8 Small Ways to Feel More Connected and Less Alone
Loneliness is not just about being alone. You can have people around you and still feel disconnected. These are the small practices that helped me build more connection, meaning, and comfort in my everyday life.
How to Reduce Mental Load: 8 Simple Ways to Stop Overthinking and Feel Less Overwhelmed
Feeling overwhelmed is not always about having too much to do. Sometimes it is about carrying too many decisions, responsibilities, and thoughts in your mind. These are the small changes that helped me reduce mental load, stop overthinking, and create more calm in my everyday life.
The Model Minority Myth: How It Impacts Asian Mental Health, Identity, and Self-Worth
The Model Minority Myth affects more than how Asian communities are viewed. It can shape our identity, self-worth, perfectionism, and mental health. Learn how this stereotype impacts Asian Canadians and how to define yourself beyond achievement.
Signs You Grew Up With Emotional Neglect (in Asian Immigrant Families)
Emotional neglect does not always look like obvious trauma. Many people grow up with loving parents who provided food, shelter, and education, yet still struggle with feeling disconnected, unsupported, or unsure of their own emotions. Learn how childhood emotional neglect develops, why it is common in Asian immigrant families, and how it impacts anxiety, relationships, self worth, and emotional connection in adulthood.
Why You Can’t Stop Overthinking, Even When Life Feels Fine
Overthinking is often misunderstood as “thinking too much,” but it is actually an anxiety driven pattern rooted in emotional safety, perfectionism, and early life conditioning. This article explores why overthinking becomes chronic, especially in high functioning individuals and Asian Canadian immigrant contexts, and how it connects to trauma, emotional suppression, and burnout. You will learn what is actually happening beneath the mental loops and what helps shift this pattern over time.
Welcome to Therapy with harry: Mental Health for Asian Canadians
Welcome to Harry Au Therapy—supporting Asian Canadians navigating anxiety, trauma, and identity.
Anti-Asian Racism During COVID-19: A Message to Asian Canadians
A message to Asian Canadians navigating fear, grief, and racism during COVID-19—and a reminder that you are not alone.
The Lonely Marathon: A Poem About Loneliness, Connection, and Emotional Survival
A reflective poem exploring loneliness, emotional endurance, and the quiet shared experience of human suffering. It moves through isolation and self perception toward the realization that emotional pain is often shared rather than solitary.
Fighting Anti Asian Racism in Toronto Chinatown: Storytelling, Community, and Belonging
Chinatown in Toronto is undergoing cultural and economic change shaped by anti Asian racism, gentrification, and community displacement. This post explores a storytelling project that highlights lived experiences, collective memory, and the importance of preserving community identity and belonging.
Why Good Therapists Do Their Own Healing Work: What Clients Should Know About Therapy
Many people worry about whether their therapist is “qualified enough” or emotionally stable enough to help them. This post explores why good therapists actively engage in their own healing work, how this supports client care, and why therapy is ultimately a human relational process rather than a one sided expert dynamic.
Turning Red and Intergenerational Trauma: What the Film Gets Right About Asian Family Dynamics
Turning Red offers a powerful portrayal of emotional inheritance and mother daughter dynamics in Asian families. This explores what the film gets right and what it simplifies about intergenerational trauma, emotional suppression, and the slow process of change across generations.
Asian Identity in Canada: Why There Is No “Right Way” to Be Asian
Many Asian Canadians grow up feeling pressure to define their identity through external expectations such as cultural authenticity or assimilation. This post explores how identity is shaped by personal experience, systemic racism, and cultural expectations, and why there is no single correct way to be Asian.
Mental Health Benefits of Journaling: How to Start When You Hate Journaling
Journaling can start as something you resist or avoid, but it often becomes a powerful tool for emotional clarity and regulation over time. This explores how journaling shifts from a task into a reflective practice that improves awareness, reduces avoidance, and supports mental health.
FOB vs Banana Labels: Why Asian Identity Is More Complex Than Either Category
Identity labels like FOB and “banana” force a false binary on Asian identity that does not reflect lived experience. Many second generation Asians exist in between and beyond these categories, and real psychological health comes from moving past external labels toward a more flexible and self defined sense of identity.
9 Stages of Journaling for Mental Health: How Emotional Processing Evolves Over Time
Journaling is not a fixed habit but a changing psychological tool that evolves with emotional growth. This outlines nine stages of journaling, from avoidance and venting to structured cognitive reflection and eventually intentional self awareness, showing how emotional processing deepens over time.
Learned Helplessness in Immigrant Families: Why You Feel Stuck Even When Life Has Changed
Learned helplessness can develop when childhood environments repeatedly teach that effort does not change outcomes. For many children of immigrants, this shows up later in adulthood as difficulty taking action, tolerating discomfort, or believing that change is possible even when circumstances have improved.
Rebel vs Explorer Identity: How to Move Beyond Fight Mode Into Authentic Living
Many people build identity around resistance and fighting injustice, but this can quietly keep them stuck in tension and burnout. This explores the difference between a “rebel” identity and an “explorer” identity, and how shifting toward curiosity and self discovery creates more freedom, authenticity, and emotional balance.