Your Story Matters: Immigration, Trauma, and the Journey Toward Healing
Immigration and Trauma, Family and Identity, Survival and Resilience, Acculturation and Adaptation, Grief and Growth, Ricky Weng LMSW Ricky Weng, LMSW Immigration and Trauma, Family and Identity, Survival and Resilience, Acculturation and Adaptation, Grief and Growth, Ricky Weng LMSW Ricky Weng, LMSW

Your Story Matters: Immigration, Trauma, and the Journey Toward Healing

Imagine stepping into a country where the language feels like a locked door and the culture an ever-shifting landscape. It’s the late 1950s. A young man arrives in New York City - not with a visa, but by quietly choosing not to return to the cargo ship that brought him here. He rents a room in the Lower East Side, leaves home only at night, and tucks a newspaper under his arm to appear fluent in a language he cannot read. He takes whatever work he can find. He meets someone. He becomes a husband. A father. A provider.

Was this your father’s story? Your grandmother’s? Is it your own?

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When You’re the First One in Your Family to Go to Therapy
Healing and Lineage, Therapy and Transformation, Boundaries and Self-Advocacy, Survival and Healing, Family and Identity, Truth and Accountability, Tanisha Christie LCSW Tanisha Christie Healing and Lineage, Therapy and Transformation, Boundaries and Self-Advocacy, Survival and Healing, Family and Identity, Truth and Accountability, Tanisha Christie LCSW Tanisha Christie

When You’re the First One in Your Family to Go to Therapy

There’s a particular kind of loneliness that comes with being the first one in your family to sit on a therapist’s couch. It’s not just about explaining your feelings. It’s about translating an entire worldview. About breaking open ways of coping that generations before you needed just to survive.

Nobody talks about how heavy that is.

You’re not just going to therapy for yourself. You’re going for everyone who didn’t have the language.

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Independence, Autonomy, and Healing: Rethinking Freedom in Therapy
Autonomy and Boundaries, Trauma and Healing, Family and Identity, Community and Connection, Resistance and Self-Love, Culture and Mental Health, Tanisha Christie LCSW Tanisha Christie Autonomy and Boundaries, Trauma and Healing, Family and Identity, Community and Connection, Resistance and Self-Love, Culture and Mental Health, Tanisha Christie LCSW Tanisha Christie

Independence, Autonomy, and Healing: Rethinking Freedom in Therapy

Freedom is one of those words we toss around easily — especially in the therapy room. We say things like “find your voice,” “set yourself free,” or “take back control.” But what does freedom mean when you’ve never felt safe enough to make your own choices? What does it mean when every time you tried to choose yourself, someone told you that you were being selfish, disloyal, or ungrateful?

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