Culture & Family

Multicultural identity refers to the unique blend of two cultural backgrounds—for example, immigrant culture blended with first-generation American culture. If you’re anything like me, you know you’re not fully one or the other; rather, you’re a blend of both and it’s not necessarily 50/50. Each individual decides how much or how little to blend on their own, and I choose to see this as something dynamic that develops over a lifetime of identity formation and maturity. When working with me, you’ll find a space to explore this part of who you are without feeling the pressure to fit into traditional expectations.

Intergenerational family dynamics refers to how one generation can consciously or unconsciously influence another by passing on certain rules, values, and/or emotional patterns. We are creatures of habit, and sometimes we’ll follow a pattern without fully being aware of it. By exploring your family history and utilizing a genogram, we’ll be able to help you track your own behavior and help you identify opportunities for change and improvement. Your parents did the best they could with the tools they had; now, let’s do better together.

We’ll start with your “family of origin”—that is, the family you grew up with (i.e. dad, mom, siblings). From there, we’ll explore patterns within the family and between generations using Bowen Family Systems Theory. Our family of origin is typically where we learn things like love, connection, worth, resilience, and meaning. We then carry these building-blocks into our future roles and relationships even when we don’t realize it. So yes, we are going to talk about your parents, but we’re not going to end there. The point of all this is to help you see patterns and choose something better for yourself (and those whom you influence throughout your life).

Your continued self-reflection between sessions will ensure that your healing journey continues beyond our therapy session. I may encourage you to practice expressive writing, art, or mindfulness after we’ve practiced and discussed those interventions during our session.

Some clients will engage in post-therapy discussions with other family members in an effort to continue processing and tracking inter-relational patterns/dynamics. I don’t require this of my clients, but I can say that several of my clients benefit from this ongoing effort between sessions.

A genogram is a visual representation of at least three generations of your family history. By mapping out your family during therapy, I can support you in recognizing emotional and relational patterns and/or the effects of trauma that are unconsciously passed down from parents to children. The point of utilizing this tool is not to blame or condemn your parents, it’s to help increase your self-awareness and individual ability to choose a different legacy for your life and children.

While we may be able to create the framework of your genogram during therapy, some clients benefit from interviewing family members (or friends of family) between therapy sessions to gather additional information. In attempts to interview, there’s a possibility that family members may avoid talking about things due to cultural shame or even become angry that a sensitive topic was brought up; therefore, I don’t require this step for clients. We will process those patterns of shame and family secrets together in session.

Not at all! I genuinely enjoy working with diverse clients and have experience working with clients from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. It’s not always necessary to have cultural alignment with your therapist; however, this may feel more comfortable for some individuals. What matters is that you don’t feel burdened to use significant portions of your therapy hour to explain cultural norms to your therapist—this might create a negative impact on your therapeutic experience.

I am a first-generation Indian American, which may be relatable if you identify as Indian American, South Asian American, Asian American, a first-generation American, and/or an adult child of immigrant parents.