National Trauma Plagues Many Immigrant Kids In U.S. " can allow for positive attachments and relationships that feel meaningful." "And so, when you have the experience of suppressing those emotions, you're also suppressing joy and connection, belonging."Īllowing her clients and their parents to experience the full spectrum of emotions can be healing, she says. She says many who survived the genocide, had to suppress their feelings. Teng supports the children and parents in openly discussing experiences like racism and genocide in a secure and validating environment. And through that lens - of being someone like a first generation immigrant - we can discuss the harm that is very much connected to the harm that parents have navigated."
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"When we're in that space, there are a lot of opportunities to shed light on the impacts of being a child of immigrants. "This may mean that we involve parents in sessions so that we can hear from their point of view," she says. First, Teng often brings in the family to her practice. To respond to these issues, Teng has developed a few approaches that are different from the way she was trained. versus really being with the gentleness of the grief, and the emotions that are being held and passed down." Using culturally responsive techniques "We also feel that we have to transcend it by being perfect or striving to be so successful that we are becoming millionaires. Holding onto a parent's pain leads into tricky territory, says Teng. "The challenge," Teng explains, "is to recognize that how you're feeling about yourself can also be internalized oppression." It doesn't account for racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination directed toward them. You just need to think better about yourself,' right? Like you need to be more positive."īut for people of color, that framework of just being "more positive" doesn't always work. "There are opportunities that are not given to you because of your identities," she says, "But if we look at it through the lens of self-esteem, it's like 'Something is wrong with you. She gives the example of microaggressions in the workplace, or job interviews. "I think the best way to describe decolonized therapy is that it is really making space to examine the external pressures, stressors, and layers of oppression that my clients have endured and survived," Teng says. Jennifer Mullan, who refer to this work as "decolonizing therapy," a process of addressing the structural racism and other forms of oppression that keep therapy from serving many marginalized communities. Teng was initially inspired by people like Dr. Embracing a practice of 'decolonizing therapy' For her, that meant joining a growing movement of other counselors hoping to transform the practice of therapy, to make it more accessible and relevant to people of color and - ultimately - to help them find healing. That's why Teng wanted to take a new approach.
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80% of psychologists, 63% of counselors and 59% of social workers are white, according to Data USA, a website that constructs visualizations of public federal data.Īsia Verdict On Khmer Rouge Leaders Is First To Officially Acknowledge Regime's Genocide Therapy is a predominantly white field in the U.S. Teng's graduate program isn't the only one like this. "I just felt silenced in my own history my own experience in the work that I was doing." "I didn't feel represented, and I felt that so much of my family's history just didn't feel like it was considered," she says, adding that she was studying under teachers who were predominantly white. She began to notice how dealing with certain issues, including race and immigration, were not given priority in her clinical training - even though she knew how important they are in shaping a life. It was this realization that compelled Teng to become a therapist in 2018 she began her graduate studies in Seattle.īut when COVID-19 hit and the Black Lives Matter movement came into full force, with communities of color having a more public conversation about their struggles in the U.S., Teng says she started feeling differently about her training and the profession she'd be entering.