What children of immigrants can teach everyone about mental health
Sahaj Kohli, whose family immigrated to the United Kingdom from India, struggled with an identity crisis familiar to many children of immigrants.
As the first in her family to marry a non-Indian, the first to go to therapy and the first to start talking openly about mental health, she found herself needing an outlet to share her challenges. In 2019, she founded Brown Girl Therapy, an online mental health community for children of in the West, to marry her two passions of mental health advocacy and narrative storytelling.
Wherever their parents were born, are often straddling two cultures. They are being raised with values inside the home that can be different from those they are experiencing outside of it.
Immigrant parents still teach their children in the ways of their home country, often rooted in deferring to elders. That’s why children of immigrants can struggle with chronic guilt, noted Kohli, who earned a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
They are raised in a culture where the norms and the values are different than the values and norms that they’re being socialized in outside of the house. You are taught the role you are supposed to play, and it’s rooted in deferring respect to elders. That’s why children of immigrants struggle with chronic guilt.
Immigrants come to a new country oftentimes without people they can lean on for support and sometimes a language barrier. They’re coming because maybe they were forced to, they might have been refugees, or maybe they’re coming because they want to give better opportunities (to) their children. The historical legacy of immigrants is in having to prove themselves and having jobs that show value to the economy. Immigrant parents pursued stability and security, whereas children of immigrants have the privilege to pursue passion and happiness.
