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.
What Sports Reveal About Your Psychology: Ego, Codependency, and Fear of Failure in Performance
Sports often reveal psychological patterns we do not notice in daily life. This article explores how fear of being selfish, codependent tendencies, and avoidance of failure can show up in competitive play and reflect deeper relational patterns.
How to Improve Seasonal Affective Disorder Symptoms at Home: 5 Sensory and Environmental Strategies
Seasonal changes can impact mood, energy, and emotional regulation in ways that feel difficult to control. This article explores five practical, sensory based strategies to create a home environment that supports emotional stability and comfort during darker months.
People Pleasing and Anger: Why Suppressed Needs Turn Into Explosive Emotional Reactions
People pleasing often looks calm on the surface, but it can build into intense emotional pressure over time. This article explores how suppressed needs, insecure attachment, and fear of rejection can lead to anger, and how boundaries help regulate emotional intensity.
Learned Helplessness From Trauma and How to Rebuild Personal Agency
Trauma can create a long lasting sense of helplessness that follows you into adulthood. This article explores learned helplessness, why self determination feels difficult, and how small intentional actions rebuild personal agency and emotional control over time.
What Your Fantasies Reveal About Trauma, Identity, and Emotional Healing in Asian diaspora
Your inner fantasies are not random. They often reflect unmet emotional needs, identity formation, and early relational experiences. This article explores how imagination can reveal patterns of trauma, masculinity, and healing across different stages of emotional development.
Healing from Trauma: Why Your Life Is Not wasted and You Are Entering Your “Second Prime”
Healing from trauma often comes with grief for lost time, missed opportunities, and versions of life that never happened. This article reframes that experience by exploring how recovery is not a return to a “first prime,” but the beginning of a new developmental stage where agency, self-awareness, and emotional clarity deepen over time. It covers how grief, inner child healing, and intentional self-care practices can help rebuild a sense of meaning and forward momentum. The focus is on reclaiming the present while integrating the past without being defined by it.
Asian Men, Racism, and Incel Culture: How Racism has Distorted Asian Masculinity
This article explores how racism, historical exclusion, and the model minority narrative shape Asian male identity and contribute to struggles with masculinity, self-worth, and belonging. It examines how systemic forces intersect with online subcultures like incel communities, and why these experiences cannot be understood through individual psychology alone. The post also critiques simplistic explanations of gender dynamics and highlights how broader social and historical structures influence emotional development and relational patterns.
Workplace Bullying and Trauma: How People-Pleasing Leads to Powerlessness and Reclaiming Your Voice
Workplace bullying often does not begin with overt conflict, but with subtle patterns of people pleasing, fear of disapproval, and internalized powerlessness. This article describes how these dynamics can develop in professional environments and how trauma responses from earlier life experiences can shape workplace behaviour. It follows a real case example of shifting from approval seeking to internal authority, and explores how healing involves rebuilding a sense of agency, boundaries, and self-trust in relational power dynamics.
The Model Minority Myth: 5 Ways It Damages Asian Mental Health and Fuels Internalized Racism
The model minority myth is often framed as positive, but it carries hidden psychological costs. This article explores how the stereotype of Asian success creates shame, silence, isolation, and internalized racism, and how it fragments both personal identity and community connection under the illusion of achievement.
10 Mental Health Strategies for Surviving Family Gatherings When You Dread the Holidays
Family gatherings can be emotionally complex, especially when relationships are strained. This practical guide offers strategies for navigating holidays with more safety and intention, including boundary setting, exit plans, emotional preparation, and ways to protect your mental health while staying connected on your own terms.
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.
Everything Everywhere All at Once and the Immigrant Parent Child Relationship: Exploring Cultural Expectations and Family Dynamics
Everything Everywhere All at Once highlights many themes familiar to children of immigrants, including family expectations, cultural differences, sacrifice, and identity. I was featured in this VeryWell Mind article, where I share my perspective on immigrant parent-child relationships and the mental health experiences that shape Asian families.
Asian Immigrant Mental Health: Understanding Shame, Filial Piety, and Intergenerational Trauma
Asian immigrant mental health is shaped by more than individual experiences. In this panel discussion, Harry Au explores intergenerational trauma, shame, filial piety, family expectations, and the experiences that influence mental health in Asian communities
Asian Mental Health: Understanding the Experiences of Asian Canadians in Therapy
Asian Canadians often navigate unique experiences related to culture, family expectations, identity, and emotional wellbeing. In this podcast conversation, Harry Au discusses Asian mental health, therapy, and the challenges many Asians in the diaspora face when seeking support
Therapy for Asian Canadians: Understanding Identity, Family, and Emotional Wellbeing
Many Asian Canadians struggle to find a therapist who understands the cultural experiences that shape their mental health. In this podcast conversation, I discuss therapy for Asian diaspora communities, including identity, family expectations, emotional expression, and the challenges many Asian Canadians face when seeking support.
Identity, Activism, and Asian Mental Health: Navigating Culture, Expectations, and Finding Your Own Path
Many Asian Canadians navigate the tension between cultural expectations, community responsibility, and the desire to live an authentic life. In this podcast conversation, I explore Asian identity, activism, the model minority myth, and how these experiences shape mental health, belonging, and personal freedom
Dating as an Asian Man: Racism, Stereotypes, and the Pressure to Prove Yourself
Many Asian men navigate dating while carrying stereotypes, racial biases, and cultural expectations that can affect confidence, identity, and relationships. In this podcast conversation, I explore the Asian male dating experience, the impact of social conditioning, and how we can examine the biases that shape attraction and connection.
Codependency in Asian Immigrant Families: A Conversation With Harry Au
Many adult children of Asian immigrant families struggle with guilt, boundaries, and feeling responsible for their family’s emotions. In this podcast conversation, I explore how immigrant family dynamics can contribute to codependent patterns and how adult children can create healthier relationships while honoring their cultural values.
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.
What It Means to Be Asian Canadian: Identity, Belonging, and Self-Acceptance
Exploring what it means to navigate identity as an Asian Canadian, and how culture, belonging, and self-acceptance shape the way we see ourselves.