Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans

Summary

Asian Americans are experiencing a racial reckoning regarding their identity, inspiring them to radically reconsider the cultural frameworks that enabled their assimilation into American culture. As Asian Americans investigate the personal and societal effects of longstanding cultural narratives suggesting they take up as little space as possible, their mental health becomes critically important. Yet despite the fact that over 18 million people of Asian descent live in the United States today - 5.6 percent of the population - they are the racial group least likely to seek out mental health services.

Permission to Come Home confronts and destabilizes the stigma Asian Americans face in caring for their mental health. Weaving her personal narrative as a Taiwanese American and insights as a clinician with evidenced-based tools, Dr. Jenny T. Wang offers readers permission to embrace their mental and emotional self-care while understanding and honoring the richness of their heritage and embodying a new, complete identity. In ten chapters, each one focusing on a central theme-from recognizing emotions, to establishing boundaries, managing anger, and introducing play into one's life-Dr. Wang presents a road map for the journey to wholeness.