How does therapy support Asian American mental health?

Therapy provides a safe space to heal intergenerational trauma, manage career stress, overcome creative blocks, and navigate cultural identity challenges. Services include Brainspotting and EMDR therapy available in Los Angeles, Pasadena, the Bay Area, and across California.

What mental health issues commonly affect Asian American communities?

Common concerns include anxiety, depression, perfectionism, impostor syndrome, family pressures, relationship challenges, and creative blocks. Asian American therapists at Oak and Stone Therapy provide culturally sensitive support using Brainspotting, EMDR, and other healing modalities.

Is culturally sensitive therapy important for BIPOC and children of immigrants?

Yes, culturally sensitive therapy acknowledges racial identity, cultural values, and intergenerational expectations. Our services include Brainspotting and EMDR therapy adapted to the needs of BIPOC and first-generation clients across California.

Who can benefit from Oak and Stone Therapy's blog?

Our blog supports Korean Americans, Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Filipino, and other East and South Asian communities, as well as BIPOC individuals and first-generation Americans seeking emotional growth, resilience, and culturally sensitive therapy options like Brainspotting and EMDR.

Even If You Were Never Taught—You Can Learn to Care for Your Emotions Now

Self-Care

Aug 15

Written By Hatty J. Lee

Maybe you don’t know how to care for your emotions—because no one ever modeled it for you.

Maybe you don’t recognize your feelings because you were told to stuff them down, without being given space to process them with a safe, attuned adult.

Maybe you don’t trust that anyone can truly handle your emotions with care—because the very people who were supposed to feel safe became sources of emotional distress.

Maybe you’ve come to believe your emotions are a burden, because that’s how they were treated by the people closest to you.

Maybe you’re afraid to disappoint someone by being honest about how you feel—because you grew up carrying the pressure to behave, to please, to stay agreeable… even at the cost of your own needs.

Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that emotions don’t matter, won’t change anything, or won’t get you anywhere—so you avoid them altogether.

The way you were met in your moments of emotional pain shaped your relationship with your feelings.
And understanding that relationship is the first step toward healing it.

What Avoidance Actually Does

Numbing or avoiding your feelings won’t make them go away.
It only intensifies them — building pressure beneath the surface until you “spill over.”
And when that happens, the consequences can be significant: in your relationships, your choices, your self-trust, and your overall well-being.

Telling yourself not to burden others with your feelings keeps you emotionally disconnected from the people who care about you—and distances you from your own needs in the process.

Avoiding the full depth of your emotions makes it hard to identify the needs beneath them—which means those needs go unmet.
The feelings linger. The discomfort remains.

Staying angry without exploring the wounds beneath the anger will keep you stuck in resentment, shame, and emotional exhaustion.

You Can Learn to Do It Differently

Even if you didn’t get what you needed growing up, you can still learn how to meet those needs now.

You can:

Learn to sit with your feelings instead of run from them
Let safe people witness your pain and still stay
Offer yourself compassion instead of judgment
Name what you need—and begin to honor it
Practice feeling without fear that it makes you weak, dramatic, or too much

Emotional healing is possible.
Not all at once. Not perfectly. But gently, slowly, and in ways that start to feel more real—and more relieving—over time.

You are not a burden.
Your feelings matter.
And it’s not too late to learn how to care for them well.

About the Author

Hatty J. Lee, LMFT #53772 (she/her) is a Korean American marriage and family therapist, Brainspotting practitioner, and founder of Oak and Stone Therapy. With over 15 years of experience in community mental health, schools, and private practice, she provides therapy in person in Los Angeles and Pasadena, and virtually throughout California and Seoul, South Korea. Many of her clients identify as Asian American creatives, including actors, writers, celebrities, and producers in the entertainment industry. She shares mental health insights on her Instagram and is the co-author of The Indwell Guide, a visual storytelling and mental health guide that offers practical tools to support healing and self-discovery.

Asian American TherapyAsian Therapist

Hatty J. Lee

Oak & Stone Therapy is a team of Asian American therapists who offers individual, couples, child and teens, and family therapy virtually across California and in-person in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California.

http://www.oakandstonetherapy.com