Healing the Tigress

This episode dives into the topics of non-traditional paths to parenthood, as well as not settling for a partner if it doesn't feel like the right fit. Our guest today is Jen from @AsiansInBloom. Jen is a second-generation Taiwanese American woman and eldest daughter of immigrant parents, with degrees in Psychology, Speech-Language Pathology, and Human-Centered Design Engineering. Jen shares with us how she had always felt like a "late-bloomer" when she was growing up, though she doesn't like to refer to herself as that anymore. We talk about how she had tried following her parents' path laid out for her and when her timeline just didn't match up with their expectations, she started to question whether it was even a timeline that she really wanted too.We discuss the pressures of marriage and parenthood in Asian American households and how that could be a disservice to our mental health and the future generation's mental health as well. Jen also walks us through her journey to pursue two rounds of egg-freezing and what it entailed. She shares some tips that might help others who are considering it or going through it too, and mainly Jen wants to share her story so others felt less alone than she did when she was navigating the process without a partner or her family nearby.Please join us in this episode as we dive into Jen's exploration of a non-linear path in relationship to her Asian American identity!Find more of Jen:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asians.in.bloom/If you resonate with topics in this episode, you may also enjoy:Episode 53: Single Mom by Choice: Unexpected Joys Navigating Special Needs with Michele ElizagaEpisode 38: Permission to Break Generational Cycles with Dr. Jenny T. Wang, PhDSend us your thoughts! Please visit GrieversAndFriends.com if you'd like to support the "Look to the Sky" Kickstarter to help our Episode 45 guest, Dr. Jenny Kim, bring her book to more people who need it! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today's guest, Lana Marcucio, found us through last year's episode 40 that we did with Not a Tiger Mom Podcast's hosts (two neurodivergent moms raising their own autistic kids), and she connected with us in hopes of sharing her story too. In honor of April as Autism Awareness Month, we were thrilled to speak with her about her journey.Lana is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese/Chinese American mom of 3, one of which is a non-speaking or non-verbal daughter with Autism. She eventually turned to technology to help her daughter speak, as Lana has been a mobile app developer for many years prior to having kids. So when this mom couldn't find a software good enough for her daughter, she took to creating one herself.  Her daughter's name is Quinn and her app is called QVoice.In the episode today, Lana shares with us how discovering her children had varying disabilities actually led her to be a recovering tiger mom--hence her moniker of "Tigerish Mom" was born. She explains how tiger parenting did not work with her son who had ADHD, nor her non-verbal daughter who Lana would go on to learn had both epilepsy and autism. Between navigating new diagnoses and giving birth to a third child while also figuring out how or when to explain to her immigrant parents about Quinn, Lana was overwhelmed with the many things she had to juggle. We talk about how Lana had to break so many generational cycles and do the deep inner work to heal in order to foster the kind of relationships she truly desired to have with her children--including the softening of her previous tiger mom approaches. Lana also shares with us how being trilingual and using her own understanding of languages helped her to develop the kind of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) application that would best help her daughter, who did not have strong receptive language skills.  We loved learning about the challenges and needs of language development in some neurodivergent children from Lana, as well as hearing how she tended to her own maternal mental health over the years with therapy and medications. Take a listen to this strong, inspiring mama's journey today!Find more of Lana:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/qvoice.app/https://www.instagram.com/tigerishmom/Website/App: https://qvoice.appYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@qvoice-appIf you resonate with this episode, you may also like:Episode 40: Neurodivergent Moms Raising Autistic Kids with Jenny Lai and Bettina Lopez-Lam from Not a Tiger Mom PodcastSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For this year's National Infertility Awareness Week, we wanted to give the spotlight to a beloved friend, fan, and contributor to our podcast. Joining us today from her usual behind-the-scenes role is Emilie Chuong, the gracious Japanese/Chinese American photographer who took our podcast photos and headshots to help us launch Season 2!Emilie walks us through her infertility journey with her husband, which entailed all the tests and a year of IUIs before attempting to try IVF. But literally just before they were going to do their first IVF round, the pandemic shut down everything and "elective surgeries" like IVF were put on hold indefinitely. Two years later, they attempted again and Emilie walks us through the outcomes. We talk about what a huge financial burden IVF is and how Emilie decided she couldn't gamble yet another round, knowing what her chances might be. We discuss what other options they considered like adoption, fostering, surrogacy, along with the rare chances of getting an Asian-identifying child in some of these scenarios. Ultimately, Emilie explains that they arrived at the decision to embrace a childfree life, even though it was not truly by choice.Emilie shines a light on how being childfree can be abundantly joyful even while holding space for the grief of a life they once envisioned. On the other side of the journey to find peace in their life path, Emilie continues to find joy in capturing and preserving beautiful life moments of others. Thank you to Emilie for being vulnerable with our listeners in this episode about her personal journey. And an equally bigger thank you to her for taking some wonderful photos for our team!More about Emilie:Emilie is a professional photographer based in the Bay Area, specializing in portraits, couples, family, and event photography. She is 4th generation Japanese American, as well as 5th or 6th generation Chinese American. With a Bachelor's in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, she has always had a deep passion for visual storytelling. After Covid, Emilie made the intentional decision to fully dedicate herself to building her own photography business, capturing meaningful moments in her work. When she's not behind the camera with a client, you'll likely find her and her husband exploring a new corner of the world together, where, of course, she's still behind the camera, capturing it all.Find more of Emilie:Instagram: @emiliechuongWebsite: https://www.emiliechuong.comSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today’s guest will be talking about the topic of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) , which is a severe form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy that requires medical intervention. Raag Malhotra is a PMH-C certified perinatal mental health therapist who transformed her own journey through postpartum depression and HG across two pregnancies into a mission to support mothers navigating their darkest moments. Raag is a mother of two and brings a unique lens of experiencing one pregnancy in India during the pandemic and the second pregnancy in the United States. She was not informed that getting hyperemesis gravidarum in her first pregnancy gave her a higher chance of recurring HG in subsequent pregnancies. We talk about how Raag navigated HG in both pregnancies and how she finally found validation in her condition with the right providers and treatment plans. We discuss how while HG is a very physically taxing and traumatic experience during pregnancy, it is equally tolling on mental health. Through her online platform and her dual-market practice serving clients in India and the US diaspora community, Raag creates a bridge between evidence-based care and the raw, authentic reality of maternal mental health struggles in South Asian  families.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ She brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to her work with South Asian mothers who face unique cultural pressures around mental health treatment.To this day, Raag says she has yet to find another South Asian mother tell her that they had HG too. However, we have a feeling she's not alone, and maybe this episode might help her connect with another mother in her community who experienced it too!Find More of Raag:Instagram: @momsinnerjourneyResources Mentioned:HER Foundation Instagram: @hgmomsHER Foundation: https://www.hyperemesis.org/@hg.Canada Pregnancy Sickness Support UK Dr. Marlena S. Fejzo GD15 linked to maternal risk of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy - Link to paperSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Join us in this episode as we explore the inspiring journey of Michele Elizaga, a Filipina American single mom by choice. Michele shares her decision to embrace motherhood on her own terms and defy societal expectations of needing to be partnered to have a baby. It started on her 40th birthday in Costa Rica where she had a pivotal conversation with a good friend that led her to consider having a child without a partner and pursue fertility options.What started as a wild idea turned into a fast-paced roller coaster as Michele navigated sperm banks, fertility tests and doctors, and then a shocking pregnancy with the odds stacked against her all in less than a year. She shares with us the unexpected joy of becoming a mother to a son with Down Syndrome and autism. Michele's story is a testament to the power of choice and destiny and highlights the challenges and triumphs of raising a child with special needs. We talk about how being supported by her community was essential to Michele's journey, and we also talk about how Michele has utilized things like therapy and medications in different seasons to support her own mental health and ADHD.We hope this episode offers hope and inspiration to anyone considering non-traditional paths to parenthood or wanting to learn more about it, as Michele exudes joy and possibility in our conversation that life as a single mom by choice to a child of a special needs is equally wondrous and amazing.Find more of Michele:Instagram: instagram.com/micheleelizagaStory: Love What MattersSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In this episode, Stella Falkner shares her inspiring journey from postpartum mental health struggles to creating and founding Dowa, a platform that bridges community support with clinical care for mothers. We dive into Stella’s personal experiences through postpartum that led her to discovering she had complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and how she started healing from this. Stella tells us about how C-PTSD is different from PTSD because it arises from not one singular traumatic event but from an accumulation of prolonged, repeated, or chronic traumas that becomes woven into daily heightened feelings of being under duress. We discuss how Stella was lucky enough to find a partial hospitalization program (PHP) that would take her in even when she was past a year postpartum, which ultimately felt so life-saving in her journey. We talk about the scarcity of dedicated postpartum mental health programs and the difficulties in accessing in-network support, shedding light on the broader mental health challenges beyond perinatal mental health disorders. When designing her company, Stella was intentional about the way Dowa was set up. Stella introduces Dowa's innovative approach to maternal wellness, featuring a diverse provider network and support tools designed to break the stigma around seeking mental health help. The conversation highlights the critical role of community in maternal mental health and emphasizes the importance of finding safe spaces and culturally specific support, particularly for Asian American and Pacific Islander mothers.More about Stella:Stella Falkner is a Korean-American entrepreneur, mother, Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist, Postpartum Doula, Lactation Educator, and maternal health advocate. Her work centers on building technology that is deeply empathetic and grounded in the lived experiences of real families.After navigating her own mental health challenges in motherhood and finding strength in the support of other moms, Stella founded Dowa — a platform designed to bridge community support with clinical care. She built Dowa to provide integrated support that addresses the full spectrum of motherhood: mental health, physical wellness, and the often overwhelming stress and anxiety that come with raising a child and tracking their development.Website:  dowahealth.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/dowahealthResources mentioned:"What My Bones Know-A Memoir of Healing from Complex-PTSD" by Stephanie FooSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

On today's episode, we dive into the often-overlooked topic of mental health among AAPI men. Our guest is John Wang, the award-winning author of Big Asian Energy. John with us shares his personal journey of overcoming burnout and redefining his identity, highlighting the cultural challenges faced by AAPI men in seeking mental health support and honoring where they come from without losing who they are becoming.We explore the impact of societal expectations, the model minority myth, imposter syndrome, people-pleasing, and the importance of creating spaces for emotional expression and healing, particularly in the AAPI community. John shares about the Asian mens' groups that he formed (and facilitates) and about his journey into starting therapy and healing after reaching a breaking point right around the age of 30.As a hopeful parent one day, John also talks about how he envisions raising his future children after doing a lot of inner healing to be the best and truest version of himself he can be. Join us as we discuss how AAPI folks can embrace their full selves and feel more seen in authentic ways in their lives!More about John:John Wang is the Taiwanese-Canadian award-winning author of Big Asian Energy (Amazon Editor’s Top 20 Best Business And Leadership Books 2025), podcaster, and a keynote speaker. John has been interviewed and featured as a leadership coach by NBC, CNBC, WSJ, TEDx, and Audible, and his insights on confidence and breaking limiting patterns have amassed over 25 million views on social media. Find more of John:🌍 Website: https://www.bigasianenergy.com📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnwangofficial/🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnwangbae💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwangofficial/📖 Book: https://a.co/d/c0T1c8t🎙️ Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/5M7T0HbKqNpJNuFRt3DUEH🎙️ Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/big-asian-energy/id1704004839Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

This episode delves into the critical topic of maternal mental health research and policy, especially as it pertains to the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Our guest today features Cindy Herrick, a certified peer support specialist and Senior Editorial & Research Manager at the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health. Cindy is a Taiwanese American mom of one who shares her personal journey through maternal mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and perinatal OCD, and discusses the systemic gaps in research and policy that affect AAPI mothers. While Cindy never imagined herself doing policy work, through volunteering, she realized that she could impact so many more people if she focused her energy on the research and policies that could affect so many moms that fall through the cracks—like herself. We also explore the pressing issue of maternal mental health within the AAPI community and what limited research has been done and is still currently being explored around AAPI moms, especially also around maternal suicide. The conversation highlights the importance of addressing these issues through storytelling, research, and policy change, and we hope it might inspire anyone to get involved in advocacy work. Thank you Cindy for your time and dedication to  maternal mental health awareness and even more so for our AAPI mothers!More about Cindy:Cindy has led the Maternal Suicide program at the Policy Center since 2018, and is an expert in maternal suicide, MMH screening, peer support, and researching MMH disorders from a holistic perspective. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Nursing Science & Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State University, where she also received her MA in Special Education.  Her doctoral research focuses on maternal suicidality and mortality. Cindy is a Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS) in the State of Arizona and is also certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C). She is a core member of the Arizona Department of Health Services’ Maternal Mortality Review Board (ADHS MMRC). Cindy is also on ADHS’s Arizona Maternal Mental Health Task Force, where she chaired the awareness workgroup.  As a Peer Support Certification Expert Panelist for SAMHSA, Cindy advised on the development of a national framework and standard for peer support.  Previously, Cindy served as the Strategic Partnerships & Campaigns Lead at the Policy Center, during which she routinely convened stakeholder events, led the national Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week Campaign (2018-2022), and served as the pharmaceutical advocacy liaison.  Additionally, Cindy serves as a reviewer and reviewer mentor for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).  Cindy is currently the President of the ASU Edson PhD Student Organization andSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In this episode, we had the extreme pleasure of interviewing New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, Joanna Ho. Many of you may know her from her children's books like Eyes that Kiss in the Corners or even her young adult novel The Silence that Binds Us.Joanna tells us about how her passion for equity, inclusion, and social justice led her to eventually writing the dozen plus books she has published to date in an unexpected departure from her previous jobs. She shares how after becoming a mother she did not see the Asian American representation in books that she wished her child could see, so she took it upon herself to figure out how to become an author and write the books she wanted her child to have available.We talk about how she stayed mentally strong when going through a divorce in the middle of the pandemic when her first book was being published, all while mothering 2 children and working as a high school vice principal. We dive into the heartwarming story behind how she decided to pursue dating after divorce and eventually re-married a friend she had known since middle school (and have another baby)!We discuss themes of silence around mental health, racism, and social justice that affect the AAPI community and why books and community are revolutionary components. Joanna tells us how she drew upon the strength of her own mother and developed a better relationship with her mom after entering motherhood herself.This conversation is rich with discussion around healing, self-love, and community in relationship to motherhood and mental health. We are so grateful to Joanna for the honor of this interview and we hope you'll love this conversation as much as we did!***Joanna Ho is a second generation Taiwanese/Chinese American mother of 3 who has received the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature Honor, a Golden Kite Award, an Ezra Jack Keats Honor, and been finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism and equity work. She holds a master’s from the Principal Leadership Institute at Berkeley and has been an English teacher, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, a creator of educator professional development, and a high school vice principal.She lives in the Bay Area, where she survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids. Keep your eyes open for more books to come!Find more of Joanna at:Website: joannahowrites.com Instagram: @joannahowritesPodcast: Kidlit Happy Hour Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Last February (2025), we sat down with co-founders Soo-Jin Lee and Linda Yoon of Yellow Chair Collective as guests ourselves for the first time as a duo on the Yellow Chair Collective podcast! We focused on the topic of Eldest Daughters and the traits that typically embody. Linda and Soo Jin were gracious enough to share the podcast recording with us so that we could share it more directly with our listeners too at some point. And that is what today's episode is!For those of you who are newer to Healing the Tigress and may not have listened to our back story before, this episode will also give you some insights (or refresh your memory if you've been a regular listener!) into how our podcast was born and what postpartum mental health challenges Peggy and Jasmine personally went through that led them here today. We also dive into how our birth order and Asian American Eldest Daughter traits may have contributed to any perinatal mental health disorders and how we eventually learned to get help.Thank you to Soo Jin and Linda for inviting us as guests for this discussion and letting us be in the guest seats for once!Yellow Chair Collective (YCC) is a psychotherapist group based out of California and New York, specializing in serving the AAPI community. Find more of YCC:Entwine Community: ⁠⁠⁠https://entwinecommunity.org/⁠⁠⁠Yellow Chair Collective Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://yellowchaircollective.com/⁠IG: @yellowchaircollectiveTikTok:   @yellowchaircollective  Original podcast episode from YCC Eldest Daughters Talk SeriesSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For the final episode of the year, we have the pleasure of talking to another reproductive psychiatrist on the show! (Check out Episode 17 if you want more details on debunking myths for perinatal psychiatric medications). In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kristin Yeung Lasseter,  a Board-Certified Psychiatrist based in Texas who specializes in Reproductive Psychiatry and Women’s Mental Health. Dr. Lasseter opens up to us about her experience with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her first child while being a second year medical resident. We discuss what ultimately led to her decision to start medications and how she recovered. We also talk about medications and treatment for postpartum anxiety and insomnia and considerations during breastfeeding. Most importantly, Dr. Lasseter again emphasizes the risks versus benefits of using medications compared with the risk of untreated mental illness. Dr. Lasseter is the Founder and President of Reproductive Psychiatry and Counseling, which hosts multiple psychiatrists and psychotherapists specializing in mental health across the reproductive life span, and treats people across the state of Texas. Dr. Lasseter is also Affiliate Faculty at The University of Texas Dell Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is a board member of the International Society of Reproductive Psychiatry. She volunteers time at Postpartum Support International’s Psychiatric Consult Line and raises awareness about reproductive mental health through speaking engagements and social media. Find more of Dr. Lasseter:TikTok @the.repro.psych on TikTokInstagram: @the.reproductive.psychiatristWebsites: www.kristinlassetermd.com and www.rpcclinic.comThank you Dr. Lasseter for honestly sharing about your personal postpartum experience with perinatal mental health disorders and medications, as well as your clinical pearls on medication risks and benefits!Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Maternal mental health goes beyond just the immediate postpartum period and that we know that as we learn to parent, our mental health is also affected by the way we parent. We love talking about breaking generational cycles in parenting because we think, especially as AAPI parents, that is one of the keys to achieving better mental health in the long run. So for today's episode, we talked with the two clinical psychologist co-founders of Modern Asian Parent, Dr. Michelle Chung and Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge!Together we discuss:What is the "Modern Asian Parent" (MAP) and how this was born and grew into a community and movement for Asian American parents amongst Dr. Chung and Dr. Berssenbrugge's New York community and beyondSome personal and professional pivotal moments for our guests that helped to develop and shape MAPHow raising biracial children in the AAPI community can raise different challenges and how to help modern Asian parents navigate thisThe unique challenges and gifts of raising an Asian American child and hence why a different approach to parenting may be neededHow one can begin to define their family values and parent in a way that feels aligned with themDr. Laura Berssenbrugge is a child and adolescent psychologist and former middle and high school teacher. She grew up 5th generation in Hawaii and is biracial: 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Dutch. Dr. Berssenbrugge is the Founder of Gramercy Psychology, a group practice on New York’s Upper East Side specializing in evidence-based treatment for anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, stress and emotion regulation challenges, and neurodivergence. She is the author of Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Uncertain Times.Dr. Michelle Chung is a Korean American award-winning clinical psychologist with over two decades of experience. She is the founder of InPractice Psychology Group, a New York City practice serving children, adults, families, and parents. Dr. Chung also holds a position at Mount Sinai Medical Center, teaches clinicians in training, and has published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. She is also a sports and performance psychologist for elite and Olympic-level athletes and the consulting psychologist for a leading NYC fencing club. Find more about The Modern Asian Parent: IG: @themodernasianparentWebsite: https://www.themodernasianparent.com/ Substack: https://themodernasianparent.substack.com/Find more of Dr. Laura BerssenbruggeIG & TikTok: @drlaurabtherapySubstack: https://drlaurabtherapy.substacSend us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

*Special Thanks to our sound engineer Dr. Tony Huynh, PharmD for helping us edit this episode and introducing us to Dr. Jenny Kim**Trigger Warning: This episode discusses infant loss.*We had the honor of interviewing our guest today on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day last month (October 15) to hold space for her story and loss. Dr. Jenny Kim, PharmD, BCPPS is a Chinese American board-certified pediatric pharmacy specialist who has worked in the NICU, PICU, and CVICU for almost 10 years in places like Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Boston Children's Hospital, and UCSF Benioff Children's in Oakland. On today's episode, Jenny shares with us in poignant detail the tragic accident and story of losing her son Joey Tate Kim right around 7 months old in 2022. We also talk about:What it was like being on the patient side of things after having worked in pediatric critical care for so longWhat the stages of grief looked like for her and how they evolved over timeHow Jenny processed Joey's loss with her two older sonsThe complicated emotions and decision around trying to conceive again after losing Joey and being blessed with twin girlsHow Jenny is supporting other parents now on their grief journeys and the customizable children's book she's written to honor angel babiesThis episode is deeply raw and vulnerable, and we thank Jenny for bravely sharing her story and feelings to help others feel less alone if they are also going through infant loss or any sort of loss journey. We also love the work she is doing to honor lost babies and creating a beautiful keepsake in remembrance of others' angel babies. Please check out her work if you're looking to support a loss mama and also see ways to connect with Jenny below:Instagram: @whatjoeytaughtme for my grief space@grieversandfriends for updates on support items for grievers and friendsBook Website: https://www.grieversandfriends.com/This is a platform to customize children’s grief storybooks to nurture grief conversations through the lens of living with grief while carrying grief forward with memory, care, and love. The first book, Look To The Sky, just launched on Joey’s 3rd Angelversary on July 23rd.Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We had the great pleasure of talking with Kriti Lodha in today's episode about her postpartum story that surrounds the highly stigmatized and misunderstood topic of postpartum psychosis, which can affect 1 to 2 in 1000 women. While Kriti didn't have noticeable risk factors for postpartum psychosis, her experience with being a first-time pandemic mom while also grappling with the postpartum mental health emergency has profoundly affected and shaped her motherhood journey and career path going forward.Kriti is a South Asian mom who was born and raised in Luxembourg, Europe and moved to the U.S. when she was 11 years old. Kriti is a seasoned marketing and technology executive with a track record of building and scaling multi-million-dollar businesses, brands, and teams across the SaaS and CPG industries, including Toast and Procter & Gamble. Today, Kriti proudly serves as Executive Advisor at the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Mass General Hospital, on the Board of Directors at Postpartum Support International, as well as a peer support group leader for fellow psychosis survivors. In this episode, we talk about Kriti's story, thoughts on breastfeeding and societal pressures, how being South Asian played a role in her journey, and why she now chooses to pursue work that advocates for maternal mental health. We also pointedly talk about why it is important not to "rarify" postpartum psychosis and see it only as the sensationalized version portrayed in the media. Because while postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency, it is often not the sensationalized version and also highly treatable so families need to be equipped with the tools to recognize symptoms and know how to take action.We loved this discussion with Kriti and we are excited that she is now working on marrying her lived experience and professional expertise to design new models of care that expand access to specialized treatment for families navigating severe perinatal mental health challenges!Find More of Kriti:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kritilodha/Resources Mentioned:Dr. Ruta Nonac's blog on breastfeeding/mental health More than Blue documentary - this is where folks can check out trailer, sign up to host screenings, etc. Postpartum Psychosis (PPP) Get Help Page from PSI- one stop shop that includes discussion tool, support groups, etc. Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We've had several guests on the podcast talk about postpartum depression, but fewer have notably admitted or recognized depression during pregnancy too. In today's episode, our guest Serein Wu shares about how she was worried about postpartum depression with her mental health history going into motherhood, but she did not expect to have prenatal depression while she was pregnant too.Serein goes into depth sharing her story about the complicated emotions of losing her mother, who she shared a very close relationship with, before becoming a mother herself. Then when she thought she was ready to conceive, the pandemic had started closing in on the world and Serein suddenly found herself even further isolated from loved ones while navigating pregnancy without her mom and/or community. In the episode, we dive deeper into:Maternal health care during the pandemicSerein's traumatic birth with PUPPP (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy), pre-eclampsia, and an emergency C-sectionPrenatal depression, postpartum depression, and ways to heal--including Serein's thoughts on how she wished she had tried medication in hindsightThe shame of not bonding with your baby right away and recognizing that not everyone has that instantaneous connectionSerein's work of moving through the grief of not having her mom with her through her motherhood journey and finding pieces of her mom in her life nowDeciding whether or not to have a second child while also considering her partner's experience in this parenthood journeySerein Wu is a Taiwanese/Chinese American mother, a certified nutritionist through Precision Nutrition, and a Lagree Level 2 certified fitness instructor. She has dedicated her career to helping people improve their overall well-being and has had 10 years of experience creating digital content on her YouTube channel, her blog, and more.Find more of Serein:Instagram: @sereinwu TikTok: @sereinwuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoreSereinWuWe want to say a sincere thank you to Serein for being so vulnerable and open about your motherhood experience and loss, and we hope her story might help someone else out there who is also going through any similar stories. Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In today's episode, we sit down with Shivani Berry, CEO and Founder of Career Mama, to talk about the raw realities of balancing career and motherhood. Shivani is a Harvard MBA, a LinkedIn Top Voice in Leadership, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Nasdaq. But more importantly, she is a mom of two who has lived through burnout, identity shifts and even a near-death experience just days after giving birth to her second child.Shivani shares candidly about the identity shift that came with becoming a mother, the burnout she faced during her second pregnancy, and the life-changing perspective she gained after her postpartum health crisis. We explore how cultural expectations as a first-generation Indian-American shaped her motherhood journey, why supportive partnerships matter in sharing the mental load, and what ambitious moms need most to thrive both at work and at home.If you're a new mom or even a seasoned mom who has wondered what it means to "do it all," Shivani's story reminds us that leadership and motherhood are not about perfection, but about presence, intention, and creating space for support. This is not just for the career mamas out there, but for any mama wondering if they have to choose between career and motherhood.Find more of Shivani:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivaniberry/Website: https://careermama.com/Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Peggy and Jasmine are back for a third season of Healing the Tigress! This opening episode goes over a few updates and recaps, and we also answer some listener questions that we collected from you guys!One of the biggest updates over the summer is that we've switched to Buzzsprout Subscriptions! This is a way that you can give us a little more support if you resonate with our mission to continue to destigmatize mental health and open up more conversations in this space for AAPI parents. We go over how to sign up if you're interested and once you're subscribed, we'll have bonus episodes available for you to listen! (We even tease our next bonus episode coming up VERY soon!)As always, we appreciate if you can drop us a rating or review and if you follow the show! These steps can help boost our show visibility in searches and that's what we really hope to accomplish so an AAPI mom struggling with her perinatal mental health can find the stories she may need to feel seen and find the resources to heal.Please follow along, share the show, catch us on IG, and we'll be back really soon with our first bonus episode and guest of the season! Thank you for all your support; we couldn't do this without all of YOU amazing listeners!Send us your thoughts! Hey Healing the Tigress listeners! This is Dr. Jenny Kim from episode 45. You may remember my story about losing my baby Joey before he was 7 months old and how I grew through the grief. Last year, I wrote and created a customizable picture book called "Look to the Sky," reminding loved ones that their love lives on through every day signs. Now we are trying to make this book more accessible to the community. So from now unt Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

On our final episode of the season, we were thrilled to interview another AAPI mom duo, who host a podcast named "Not a Tiger Mom Podcast." We have been wanting to bring on AAPI moms who identify as neurodivergent or are raising neurodivergent children, and both of these moms identify as neurodivergent themselves AND are raising autistic children AND work with neurodivergent children in their careers (behavioral analyst and speech therapist)!Jenny Lai, MA, BCBA and Bettina Lopez-Lam, MS, CCC-SLP, IBCLC, are the amazing duo behind Not a Tiger Mom Podcast. Jenny is Chinese-Cambodian American, and Bettina is Filipino American and they met on Instagram in 2023 through their shared experiences of raising autistic sons. Bettina is a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) individual, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and birth trauma, and has navigated postpartum depression and anxiety. Jenny is self-diagnosed with ADHD, identifies with highly sensitive person (HSP) traits, and has a clinical history of anxiety and depression.In 2024, they launched the Not a Tiger Mom Podcast, where they speak candidly about their lives as neurodivergent AAPI mothers raising autistic children. Through heartfelt and relatable conversations, they aim to break cultural stigma and encourage others in the community to find connection, healing, and acceptance. On our podcast episode today, we discuss:The journey of how Jenny and Bettina discovered they were neurodivergent themselves (both found out later in life)How being neurodivergent may have impacted Jenny and Bettina's postpartum experienceThe experience of getting autism diagnoses for their kids and how it affected their mental healthsThe importance of using neurodivergent-affirming language How being AAPI adds another layer to being neurodivergent and raising neurodivergent childrenThe importance of having neurodivergent-identifying providers such as Jenny and Bettina in the space of support for neurodivergent kidsThe controversy behind traditional ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy versus neuro-affirming ABA therapy.Addressing the harmful comments and misrepresentation of the autistic communityWe encourage those who want to learn more about Jenny and Bettina's journeys to check out their pages and podcast!Find more of Jenny and Bettina:Not a Tiger Mom PodcastJenny's Instagram: @msjennybxBettina's Instagram: @beeingaudhdNATM Instagram: @notatigermompodcastNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In this episode, we explore how doulas or birthkeepers can be so powerful and helpful during the birthing and postpartum experience with Leonora Ilovea Willis.Leonora is a native-born Samoan, born on the island of Tutuila in the great Pacific ocean, but who is practicing and working in diaspora as a Birthkeeper, childbirth educator, lactation education specialist, perinatal yoga teacher and bodyworker, serving her community in Oakland and the greater Bay Area. She owns and operates her own birthwork business called Daughter of Samoa, which is part of the title of a book that an ancestor wrote and published in 1889, The Story of Lauli’i, A Daughter of Samoa.We talk to Leonora about:The importance of having a postpartum plan and communityGenerational trauma to be addressed before motherhoodWhy it is important to have cultural congruency in birth workWhere the word "doula" comes from and the importance of language to describe birthkeepersWhat the difference between a doula/birthkeeper is versus a midwifeWhat kind of systemic level changes would be idealLeonora humbly and graciously imparts her wisdom and experience of the birthkeeping world with us and we hope this episode can help others learn more about the power and importance of working with a birthworker or building a postpartum team with intention.Find more of Leonora at:Website: https://leonorawillis.life/IG: @daughter_of_samoaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/daughterofsamoa/Resources:Leonora's ancestor's book: The Story of Lauli'i, A Daughter of Samoa  Tema Mercado, midwife from San DiegoHealing the Tigress Episode 21--Healing our Makuahine with Dr. Kalena Kaopuuokalani LanuzaHealing the Tigress Episode 32-- Expecting the Unexpected: A Realistic Look at Ways to Prepare for Postpartum Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

May is AAPI Heritage Month and also Maternal Mental Health month, and what better cross section to represent these things than our podcast! For this special month, we have the absolute pleasure and honor of interviewing Dr. Jenny T. Wang, PhD. Many of you may know of Dr. Jenny, but for those who do not, she is a Taiwanese American clinical psychologist speaker, and author on the intersections of Asian American identity, mental health, and intergenerational trauma. We were able to talk to Dr. Jenny about her own experiences with her mental health during her postpartum periods, as well other topics on parenting and breaking generational cycles. In this episode, we also discuss:How to start doing the inner work to heal your inner child before one can break generational cyclesWhat is the inner child?How to stop self-sacrificing 100% so you can balance valuing your children AND your hobbies, career, and other relationshipsHow to preserve some of our AAPI cultural values while parenting in a way that feels better to usHow to resist the "tiger mom" impulses to criticize and judge our childrenHow to have the self-compassion and wisdom to prioritize our mental health as children of immigrants who did not have this modeled to usWhat we can be doing to help our AAPI youth in their mental health as according to CDC data from 2018–2022, "suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans aged 15–24, and the second leading cause of death among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders"Dr. Jenny's answers are thought-provoking, profound, and wise, and we hope that you will enjoy this conversation as much as we did. This is one to bookmark to come back to over and over again!Find more of Dr. Jenny Wang:Instagram: @asiansformentalhealth Website: www.jennywangphd.com Book: Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian AmericansDr. Jenny founded the Instagram community Asians for Mental Health (@asiansformentalhealth), spearheaded several mental health directories like Asians for Mental Health therapist directory, and wrote a best selling book in 2022 titled Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans. Dr. Jenny is also an advisor on the mental health advocacy board of Wondermind, a mental health media company co-founded by Selena Gomez, Mandy Teefey, and Daniella Pierson. She is also an advisory member of the Mental Health Coalition created by Kenneth Cole and on the academic advisory board for the Asian American Foundation focusing on AAPI youth mental health. She has been seen on Good Morning America, New York Times, the Today Show, NBC, NPR, and more.Resources:Asians for Mental Health Therapist DirectoryBeyond the Surface: Understanding Mental Health Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander YouthNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice.PleaSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In this heartfelt episode, our guest Elise Ruiz-Hom, a Portland-based new mom, shares the powerful story of her and her wife Lydia’s years-long journey to parenthood. Raised in a multicultural, biracial  family in Hawai'i, Elise reflects on how her identity has shaped her worldview—especially as a white-passing Asian woman navigating life on the mainland.She takes us through their emotional fertility journey: from Lydia’s eight failed IUIs and three rounds of IVF—including traumatic procedures and heartbreaking losses—to Elise’s smoother journey to pregnancy after just two IUIs. With raw honesty, Elise opens up about grief, guilt, and healing, the importance of cultural roots in building their family, and how their son Chaves finally brought their dream to life. This is a story about building a family with intention, love, and deep resilience, navigating both the healthcare system and cultural roots as two LGBTQ mothers.Resources:Postpartum Support International Queer & Trans Parent Support GroupConnect with Elise:Instagram: @juxtapose53Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Support the showSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Among our AAPI community, it can feel like not enough people talk about the neurodivergent population and how it can impact their families and communities because of a heavy stigma–a stigma that echoes the one around talking about mental health. Our guest for this episode is Clarissa Chui, LCSW, a second generation Chinese American therapist, who works as care coordinator with families who have children diagnosed on the spectrum--specifically autism spectrum. We talk about how her own postpartum journey led her to work with other parents who need more support with their children. Clarissa breaks down what it means to be neurodivergent and something she says is, "Neurodivergence is a description not a diagnosis." We explore how AAPI folks might potentially receive the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with more resistance. We discuss what is needed on a macro level to support parents of neurodivergent children and Clariassa shares a few resources that parents can look into now too. We also talk about how people can support friends with kids of neurodivergent children. Overall, we hope this episode can be a resource for parents of neurodivergent kids or people who want to support their friends who may be parents of neurodivergent children. We know it can feel lonely in this journey, but you are deserving of support and you are never alone.Resources (CA):Regional CenterUC Davis Mind InstituteUCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)Disability Rights CaliforniaNationwide Resources:Autism Speaks National Autism CenterNational Autism ResourcesBook: The Science of Making FriendsCentral Reach Podcast:How to Tell Your Child About Their Autism Diagnosis - Child Mind InstituteParents Helping ParentsFind More of Clarissa:Psychology Today profileNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others tSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Of all the perinatal mental health disorders, postpartum psychosis is considered a medical emergency and absolutely requires treatment. It affects 1 to 2 in 1000 mothers and is often misunderstood. On this episode, our guest is Jigyna Patel, a South Asian mom of 3 girls from Houston, Texas. Her perinatal story spans over 10 years, including many different layers: the cultural stigma South Asians mom feel, the struggles of having a surprise twin pregnancy, being undiagnosed with postpartum psychosis, and having fertility issues while having PCOS. After her severe experience with 3 different perinatal mental health disorders (PMHDs), it has become her passion to spread awareness and knowledge of maternal mental health. Jigyna developed postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, and postpartum psychosis in 2014 and then postpartum depression and anxiety again in 2019 with her twins. We talk with Jigyna about how her traumatic birth and lack of sleep may have contributed to her PMHDs the first time around. She shares how she started to lose speech, stop seeing color, and hallucinate but she never knew these were symptoms of psychosis. Jigyna didn't know how to explain these symptoms to providers out of fear and the stigma in South Asian culture around mental health struggles. This episode dives into how Jigyna finally learned she had postpartum psychosis (years later) and how she recovered and received treatment. We discuss cultural barriers that she had to overcome and what work still needs to be done to support moms with postpartum psychosis, especially being a person of color. We hope this episode will help others feel seen if this experience resonates with you or for providers to learn more about the experience of postpartum psychosis, especially from the perspective of an AAPI mom.Find more of Jigyna:Instagram: instagram.com/jigyna525Email: [email protected] Jigyna has a degree from the University of Houston with a bachelors in Communications. Her career background is in Public Relations and Event Planning. She holds several different volunteer roles within in PSI such as the Houston & Hindu support coordinator, a peer in the peer mentor program, and a member of the postpartum psychosis taskforce. Recently, she joined the Texas Chapter as a board member for 2025 as well became a project manager for The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health. Jigyna is also sharing her story through digital platforms such as The Moth and Storycenter and has been a speaker at the annual PSI conference in 2023 and 2024 on her lived experience with postpartum psychosis. Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

On today's episode, we sit down and talk about breastfeeding and mental health with Anhoni Patel, the founder of the popular Mrs. Patel's Ayurvedic Treats and Teas for lactation and pregnancy support. Anhoni started her small business in 2012 while 4 months postpartum with her second child to make Ayurvedic inspired treats and teas to support pregnancy, lactation, and women's health. She shares with us how these time-tested Ayurvedic recipes have been passed down for generations in her family and how the company is named after her mother. We discuss how between her Indian mother and Korean mother-in-law, she was able to take advantage of their postpartum traditions that were instrumental to helping her through her postpartum periods. It's possible that the postpartum support provided by her mother and mother-in-law were helpful to preventing postpartum mental health disorders for her. And now Anhoni wants to pass on some of her family's traditions to support other mothers who could benefit from the same kind of generational nurturing she so appreciated from her own mother.Through working with many families over the years, Anhoni has heard about many breastfeeding journeys. Her biggest message is that your breastfeeding journey is truly a very individual choice and that every mom needs to do what's right for her family. She believes maternal mental health is quintessential above all and that no drop of breastmilk is more important than having mom be well enough to be the captain of her ship. We all firmly believe in "fed is best" and "support is best" to help women on their feeding journeys, whatever that looks like for each individual. So hopefully this episode can validate your choices in your feeding journey and potentially give some ideas for holistic support too, as Mrs. Patel's is based on the idea that food is medicine. Find more of Anhoni at:Website: https://www.mrsmilk.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrspatels/Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today's guest is someone Peggy and Jasmine have grown up with in their college years through early adulthood and motherhood, and we were so excited and honored to interview her. You may know her too as one of the OG YouTube content creators, FrmHeadtoToe!Jen Chae is a Korean American beauty and lifestyle content creator. Over the last 16 years she has cultivated a following of over 2 million followers on her social platforms, sharing everything from makeup tutorials to candid conversations about relationships and motherhood. As one of the first artists to create monolid tutorials for Youtube, she continues to empower others to embrace their own definition of beauty, both inside and out.On our episode today, Jen shares about the traumatic postpartum period she experienced shortly after giving birth due to tearing, as well as a painful infection that was dismissed at first by their pediatrician. Jen describes how it was hard to ask for help but the moment she tried to advocate for herself, she seemed to be shut down. We talk about how to protect your mental health during the postpartum period and what kind of support we wish new moms could receive. We talk about how helpful it can be to talk about our experiences to relieve the loneliness of new motherhood. And we also dive into Jen's experience with panic and anxiety attacks that stem back to her early adulthood years when she didn't even have a name for the symptoms. Finally, we discuss how Jen approaches parenthood now with her kids and honoring their mental health as well as her own. Jen ends this episode with some great words of wisdom about self-compassion and healing in postpartum. We hope you'll love this raw and candid conversation as much as we did; it was such an honor to speak with Jen!Find more of Jen at:@frmheadtotoeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/frmheadtotoe/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frmheadtotoe/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frmheadtotoe/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jen.chaeNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Last year, an avid listener from the beginning suggested that we should have an episode for the expectant new mom that they can refer friends to as a resource, not necessarily focused on just perinatal mental health disorders but how to better prepare for new motherhood in general. We know it can be kind of scary to hear about all the things that could happen and in turn maybe it induces more anxiety instead. So we made this episode to talk about what we wish we could have done to prepare better for postpartum and what we thought we did that actually helped. But we also wanted to share what joys there are to look forward to because it can be such an overwhelming time trying to prepare for everything. In this episode we go over:The power of having a doula https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10292163/Preparing for childbirthTips for preparing for breastfeeding if you want to do itPostpartum planning (NESTS)NutritionExerciseSleepTime for SelfSupportSetting up boundaries beforehandFinding a therapist beforehand (see below)The joys of motherhoodResources:Guide to Childbirth by Ina May GaskinMindful Birthing by Nancy BardackeSpinning BabiesPSI's FREE Postpartum planning classPSI's Postpartum Plan DocumentPSI Directory to find a therapist We aspire for this episode to be helpful and hopeful, and we also hope that it is one you can share with expectant mom friends!Find more of us:Instagram: Podcast: @healingthetigressJasmine: @pearlsofjasminePeggy: @healingwithpeggyNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today's episode dives into a different side of postpartum depression and treatment options that are not as widely discussed. We were joined on this episode by Stephanie Wu, a Taiwanese American occupational therapist and perinatal mental health certified professional, who talked to us about her treatment resistant depression after the birth of her second child.Stephanie has been very open about sharing her story about being a first time mom during the beginning of the pandemic, and then going on to have her second child almost exactly 2 years later. In this episode, she shares how insomnia played a role in her postpartum depression and then how she tried therapy and multiple medications in hopes of finding something that helped. Stephanie talks about her experience with the Day Program at The Motherhood Center, which is a well-known mental health treatment center for new and expecting mothers in New York. Finally, we hear about Stephanie's experience with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is something that can be offered for treatment resistant depression.We hope this episode might shine a light on how hard it can be to recover from depression for some people and hold space for those who are working hard to find the right balance of treatment regimens. Yet, Stephanie still offers hope that there is help out there and that mothers can advocate for themselves. Trigger Warning: There are mentions of suicidal ideations in this episode.Stephanie works part-time at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and is the founder of H.O.M.E. MAMA, a private practice dedicated to providing in-home maternal health support.  She offers home visits and community workshops.Resources mentioned:The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia By Shelby HarrisFind more of Stephanie at:Instagram: www.instagram.com/home_mama_nycWebsite: https://www.home-mama.com/Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

To kick off 2025, we invited Alyce Chan, stand up comedian and founder of MomCom NYC onto the podcast! Alyce is a Chinese Canadian/American mom of two boys and has been featured in the New York Comedy Festival and placed finalist in the esteemed Boston comedy festival. You've likely seen her work on ScaryMommy and other major parenting platforms. Alyce has also appeared on ABC, Hulu, The Drew Barrymore Show and the Tamron Hall Show. While this episode is definitely more light-hearted and funny, we also dive into some heavier things. Alyce tells us how when she first became a mother, she didn’t realize she could get postpartum depression and that a lot of her symptoms showed up as postpartum rage—an uncomfortable topic that many moms oftten feel ashamed to talk about. We explore how being AAPI also impacts rage and anger showing up because that may be one of the few emotions we did get to see from our parents as children of immigrants.We also talk about the role of stay at home mom and how that invisible work can breed a lot of resentment too. The reason Alyce even returned to comedy was also because motherhood was lonely at first, and making others laugh has felt fulfilling to her in making parents feel less alone in parenthood. We discuss the label of “geriatric” pregnancies and how Alyce decided to have a second child and worked through some gender disappointment. And finally, Alyce talks to us about the grief of losing her dad in recent years and how she has used humor to combat some of that grief while helping her dad’s memory live on in her shows. Alyce tells us that her dad was by far a perfect man, but she knew he loved her in his own way and chooses to forgive the things about him that she grew up wishing were different. We hope you’ll join us in this touching episode covering topics from rage to humor to grief to love. Find more of Alyce at:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momcomnycTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/momcomnycFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/momcomnycNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

The episode today explores two big themes we haven't touched upon yet on this podcast-- being child-free by choice and then the journey of adoption. Our guest today is Katy Wang, a Taiwanese American early childhood educator for the past 15 years in both private and independent schools all over the Bay Area. Katy has held a variety of positions--everything from an assistant teacher to teacher to site director to program director to now assistant principal. Katy and her husband fondly call themselves a PANK (Professional Auntie No Kids) and a PUNK (Professional Uncle No Kids), and they love on so many of their friends' children by taking them on fun outings, dinner dates, shopping trips, and more. Katy is definitely the epitome of "fun aunt." But what's unique about Katy's journey that we will explore together in this episode is that even though Katy adores children and works with them day in and out, she had initially wanted to be child-free for a long time due to mental health reasons. Then, not too long ago, she decided to pursue adoption and embark on the parenthood journey with her husband.We unpack the reasons Katy had for being child-free by choice for a long time and then the reasons for choosing adoption when she and her husband decided to pursue parenthood in the end. Katy shares with us her personal experience of clinical depression and why it had affected her so deeply. She also openly shares with us in detail what the adoption process has been like so far (financially, emotionally, logistically) and how her family has responded to her choices. Katy is still in the middle of her adoption process, so we have been given a unique perspective and snapshot of this time in her journey before she and her husband are hopefully matched with a baby. We hope this is an episode that might be helpful for anyone who is curious or considering adoption in the U.S., as there are so many factors to consider! If you're interested in learning more, Katy may be posting more about their journey in the future at a family IG account: @hellochoi.famWe hope we may be able to record a future episode with Katy from the other side of her adoption process!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

In honor of Veterans’ Day this month, we wanted to highlight a motherhood journey of a veteran who not only served her country but also now serves the needs of so many mothers in their postpartum period.Our guest today is none other than Stephiney Foley, CEO and Founder of Yuzi Care. She is a postpartum doula, army veteran, military spouse, West Point Grad, and mother of two biracial boys.Stephiney is first generation Chinese American, born in Shanghai and raised in New York City. She served in the U.S. Army for over a decade as a logistics officer. Stephiney experienced postpartum anxiety after her first child and then postpartum depression after her second child. In this episode she tells us her story and journey of motherhood from the military to working at Amazon to launching and creating a postnatal retreat center to support postpartum mothers. We talk about how it actually took a long time before Stephiney realized she needed help and then even longer to actually get the help she needed. Stephiney recalls the key moment when she knew she wasn’t okay and shares with us how medication and therapy later on would be crucial to her healing. (TW: We do discuss suicidal thoughts briefly.) Stephiney also shares with us the inspiration behind postnatal retreats like her own and also what she envisions it can grow to become to care for more mothers. We discuss the issues of costs and barriers to getting all moms the right kind of care in postpartum. Please join us for this insightful discussion about what would be some potential ideal ways to care for the mother during her fourth trimester in postpartum.Find more of Stephiney at:Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuzicareLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/96649640Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuzicare/TikTok: https://tiktok.com/yuzicare Website: www.yuzicare.com Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For this next episode, we were so excited to interview Susan Lieu, the Vietnamese American author of the moving memoir The Manicurist's Daughter. This debut memoir has been featured not only on Apple but in the New York Times, NPR books, Elle Magazine, LA Times, and the Washington Post. We talk with Susan about how losing her mother at a young age (11) was such a pivotal event in her life, that everything going forward went through the sieve of her mother's death, especially while she was becoming a mother herself. We discuss the impact of her mother's death from a botched tummy tuck and how that further exacerbated body image issues and conflicting relationship with food that Susan always grew up with.Susan shares with us how no one talked about her mother's death in the family after it happened, even to this day. As the youngest of 4, she said she was always shut down when she wanted to hear more details about her mother's death, so she had no one to turn to when trying to learn more about her mother.The conversation is rich with themes of grief, motherhood, body positivity, and mental health. We talk about many parts of the Asian American experience as a child of immigrants/refugees and break down how Susan did the work to heal from generational trauma before being ready to become a mom--particularly also chasing her dreams of being a performer first. We know this episode will resonate with many who are navigating relationships with their parents as they become parents themselves and who are trying to heal their inner child. Please join us for this riveting conversation!Besides being an author, Susan is also a playwright, a performer, a TEDx speaker, a podcaster, and a cofounder of Socola Chocolatier. She has a degree in Social Studies from Harvard College and an MBA from Yale School of Management. You can find more of Susan at:Instagram: @susanlieu, @celadonbooks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanlieuofficialTikTok: @susanlieuofficialLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanlieu/Podcast: Model Minority Moms-- https://modelminoritymoms.com/Website: https://www.susanlieu.me/TedEx Talk: Making Peace With Your Belly Fat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=al0Jw_9b06YNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Trigger Warning: We will be discussing pregnancy loss in this episode.In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Month, we wanted to share the story of our next guest, Eileen Santos Rosete. Eileen is Filipino American and it's fitting she is our guest this month too, as October is also Filipino American History Month. She holds a master of science in marriage and family therapy, is certified as a DONA International postpartum doula, trauma-informed yoga teacher and grief educator. Her brand, Our Sacred Woman, is known for its elevated offerings that help women feel seen, held, and honored. Her debut book is titled “To Tend & To Hold: Honoring Our Bodies, Our Needs and Our Grief Through Pregnancy and Infant Loss,” which just launched today!In this episode, Eileen shares her story of suffering two losses following the birth of her first child. She explains the nuances of grief in her personal story and how each of the losses were different, how she was supported or not in both cases, and how she came to realize that while losing her babies, she was actually in labor and delivering them too. We talk about how the losses also impacted her future pregnancies and subsequent living babies, and we also talk about her experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. We also talk about how being a person of color played a role in her journey. Eileen gives us a raw and vulnerable discussion about loss and how the healing journey looked for her, as well as the new resource on loss that she has created for new mothers to come.  Find more of Eileen at:Website: https://www.eileensantosrosete.com/Instagram: @oursacredwomenBook Preorder Links: https://www.eileensantosrosete.com/to-tend-and-to-hold-bookOther Resources:Free PSI Online Support Groups for Loss: https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-online-support-meetings/?_search=lossNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today's guest has a personal story behind it, and we're very honored to have on Sia Clyde, an influential mommy fitness blogger and NASM-certified personal trainer! When Jasmine (one of our show's co-hosts) was in the depths of her postpartum depression and insomnia, her husband sent her an email late one night with some blog posts talking about postpartum depression and medications. At the time, Jasmine was really worried about started antidepressants, even as a pharmacist. But reading some of these blogs at 4am one night was helpful, and the one that stood out the most to her was Sia's blog post--largely due to the fact that Sia was the only one who looked remotely Asian American and was also previously a nurse.So, 5 years later, it's been very full circle for Jasmine to have a chance to interview Sia on our podcast for Asian American maternal mental health! Sia shares with us that she is a quarter Korean American, but somehow that quarter went a long way for Jasmine! Representation truly does matter. In our interview, we discuss Sia's journey from nursing to becoming a mom to becoming a NASM-certified personal trainer. She tells us about her journeys with postpartum depression with her first and second child and how she used medications and therapy to heal. We talk in depth about how Sia used antidepressants during pregnancy and post-pregnancy, as well as the stigma of medications. Sia also openly shares that at first she wasn't sure about therapy and opted to do medications first. But later, she realized how powerful therapy was for her and has been doing it ever since 5 months postpartum with her daughter.Currently, Sia is pregnant with her third child and still taking steps to protect her mental health during this pregnancy. We hope that this episode will help other moms remember that taking medications is not a weakness and that it can be a helpful tool in getting through postpartum depression.Resources:Podcast Episode referenced: Episode 17: Debunking Myths About Perinatal Psychiatric Medications with Dr. Niya Dhand, MDSia's Blog Post that Jasmine read: https://diaryofafitmommy.com/the-brutal-truth-about-postpartum-depression/Find more of Sia:Instagram: @diaryofafitmommyofficialBlog: https://diaryofafitmommy.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiaryofaFitMommyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thesiabia1Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodeSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Maternal suicide is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the U.S. and up to 20% of maternal deaths are due to suicide. People of color are more likely to report suicidal ideation in the immediate postpartum period as compared to their white counterparts, with Asian women cited as 9x more likely.Yet, we don't hear about the stories as much. This is why it is so important to continue the conversation about maternal suicide. For the month of September, we like to honor National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month with an episode on this difficult but crucial topic. TRIGGER WARNING: This episode will discuss maternal suicide, which may be difficult or distressing for some of our listeners. Your mental health matters and we fully support doing what you need to do to take care of yourself. This space will be here if you ever wish to come back at a different time to listen.Last year, our most listened to episode by far was Episode 2-Break the Stigma for Nima: A Conversation on Maternal Suicide with Priya Bhakta and we were blown away that people were open to listening to a hard topic and conversation. So this year, we have with us Deven Bhakta, the late Nima Bhakta's husband, to tell his side of the journey.Nima Bhakta was a South Asian mother lost to maternal suicide on July 24, 2020 after suffering from postpartum depression. Her legacy lives on as her family chose to talk publicly about her story and call it what it was--suicide--in hopes of helping other families out there who may be going through similar struggles. And her story has saved lives, within mere hours of sharing her story. In AAPI communities, the topic of suicide can be so taboo, but this generation of parents is realizing that the stigma of mental health illness and seeking help for it is more harmful than helpful. Deven reflects with us about some of the signs that may have been red flags and how Indian American families can be both blessings and curses. We talk about how he has coped and healed from the loss of Nima as well as other family members in his life during the same year. Deven talks about finding his way to therapy and how he continues to heal and raise their little boy. He discusses what they do each year to honor Nima's legacy and raise awareness and funds to donate to organizations focused on supporting maternal mental health and AAPI mental health. For more information and to connect with Nima's story:Episode 2 with Nima's sister, Priya BhaktaInstagram: @breakthestigma4nimaResources (call or text):National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline:  988 National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-852-626 (833-TLC-MAMA)Postpartum Support International Hotline: 1-800-944-4773Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps oSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

One of the things we really wanted to make sure to do on Healing the Tigress was to be as inclusive as possible of all our AAPI folks’ stories. And that also means we want to make sure to highlight stories of AAPI LGBTQ+ parents and their mental health as well.  For our first guest of this season, we were very excited to have the popular wedding and elopement photographer and former cardiac ICU RN, Henry Tieu (@henrysdiary), to talk about his journey with IVF/international surrogacy with his partner to bring home their twin babies this year! We discuss the challenges and benefits of international surrogacy, the financial investment especially as self-employed fathers, the emotional toll of going through not one but two rounds of IVF and surrogates, and more. We talk about the importance of representation--both from the AAPI community and LGBTQ+ community. We discuss the need for more resources and inclusivity in society's set up and language for our LGBTQ+ couples to becoming parents. Henry also talks about how being authentic and true to self was really important for his mental health, especially when sharing on social media about his sexuality and announcing about his children. We loved this heartfelt episode and discussion to bring more awareness to the journey of parenthood for same sex couples. We're also huge fans of Henry's photography so make sure you check him out online too! Find more of Henry at:www.instagram.com/henrysdiaryResources:PSI Queer & Trans Parent Support Group: https://www.postpartum.net/group/queer-trans-parent-support-group/Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much! =)Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For our season finale, we are joined by the wonderful Dr. Kalena Kaopuuokalani Lanuza, who is a doctorally prepared Certified Family and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and Certified Lactation Counselor. She specializes in reproductive psychiatric mental health and cares for Native Hawaiian and Pasifika wāhine (women) in Hawai'i and throughout the diaspora in Washington, Oregon and California.Dr. Kalena opens up to us in this episode about her own journey to becoming a mother, after years of being an NICU nurse, only to discover the difficulties of postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD. This pushed her into her current work, where she is able to provide perinatal support for other makuahine, or mothers, especially kanaka maoli or Native Hawaiians--like herself.She graciously shares with us about the history of oppression and colonialism in the islands of Hawai'i and how this generational trauma plays a huge role in the perinatal care of many Native Hawaiian and Pasifika women, whether in Hawai'i or on the mainland. We learn about the importance of cultural congruency especially in perinatal mental health care, how to both honor and understand where we come from and how it plays a role in our current mental health.This rich episode also teaches us how to be respectful stewards of the lands we live on, remembering the history of those before us and what was lost, from both a physical home to erasure of language and culture.Find more of Dr. Kalena at:Mana Mental HealthInstagram: @mana_mental_HealthResources from this episode:Kalauokekahuli: https://www.kalauokekahuli.org/Pale wāhine & La'au Lapa'au: Pua O Eleili Pinto of Ēwe 'Oia'i'o: IG @eweoiaio Perinatal Nutrition:  Ke'alohi Naipo of Naipo Nutrition: https://kealohi-naipo.mykajabi.com/Northern CA: Mana Pasifika: https://www.sisterweb.org/mana-pasefikaWashington: Pilimakua Family Connections: https://www.hummingbird-ifs.org/programs/pilimakuaWashington: Pacific Islander Health Board of Washington: Doula's/ lactation/ pregnancy support groupsThis episode is dedicated to Jasmine Del Mar. A hui hou. We miss you.Special thank you to Dr. Tony Huynh, PharmD for helping us sound mix our introduction dedication. You can find him on Instagram @toneymixes.Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much!Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For Father's Day and Men's Mental Health Month, we wanted to get another AAPI dad on the show to talk about their experience in fatherhood in relationship to mental health. Joining us for this episode is Dr. Matt Dinh, PharmD, who is a Vietnamese American father of two and a pharmacist by trade. Matt talks to us about how his wife did not experience any postpartum mental health disorders, but he himself started experiencing some mild depression when his eldest child was in some challenging toddler years.When some of these feelings of self-doubt and questions about his worth started affecting the relationships with people that he loved, Matt realized he needed to look for help. We talk about Matt's experience with therapy and what things have helped him improve his mental health over time. Matt tells us how by sharing his experience, no matter how brief, he was also able to inspire other family members to potentially look into therapy too. It's likely underreported, but 1 in 10 dads actually can experience postpartum depression too. We discuss how entering fatherhood really was the catalyst for Matt to truly see the importance of addressing mental health. In AAPI communities, mental health is already a hard enough topic to bring up, but especially for AAPI males and dads, being able to admit needing help seems to be even more difficult. It also seems this generation of AAPI males and dads are starting to take charge of their mental health more. Matt's conversation goes over how parenting forces everyone to start looking closely at themselves and how we want and need to show up for our kids. We hope that this episode helps others see that men also are affected during the postpartum period and perhaps start conversations for others to check in with their dad friends and offer support too.Find Matt at Instagram: @maddenstylesResources:Free PSI Dad Support Group: https://www.postpartum.net/group/dad-support-group/Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much!Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Infertility impacts one in six people of reproductive age and nearly one in four female physicians who are trying to have a baby face infertility issues. This statistic is no mystery to our guest, Dr. Joyce Park, who many of you may know as @TeaWithMD on social media. Joyce's journey with IVF began when her firstborn was just 18 months old, after trying for a second child for quite some time, doctors determined she had infertility. Her and her husband decided they would pursue IVF while also trying to move from the Bay Area California to Seattle, Washington.Joyce opens up with us in this episode about how lonely the journey of IVF can be, how it can take its toll on one's marriage, but how finding ways to include your partner as well as relying on her faith helped her push through to the end. Now, on the other side with beautiful Mei Mei, Joyce is hoping that sharing her story will allow other mothers going through IVF know they are not alone. Dr. Joyce Park is a board-certified dermatologist based in Washington, founder of SkinRefinery, a teledermatology clinic, and creator of Tea With MD. She is a second generation Taiwanese American and attended college and medical school at Stanford University, while completing her dermatology residency at NYU. She has a background in medical journalism, having worked at NBC News and ABC News in their medical units. For more of Joyce's personal IVF journey story, ⁠watch here on Youtube⁠Instagram: @TeaWithMDPodcast: Spilling the Tea with Dr. JoyceResources mentioned:Dr. Lora ShahineDr. Natalie CrawfordSpecial Thanks: Today’s episode was brought to you by the editing support of Dr. Tony Huynh, PharmD. Thank you again, Tony, for lending your editing expertise and prowess to today’s episode! While Tony is a pharmacist and dad by day, he’s actually a DJ extraordinaire by night! You can check out his work at @toneymixes on Instagram.Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much!Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Bipolar disorder affects 2-3% of the general population, and about half of the women with bipolar disorder are first diagnosed in the postpartum period. In today's episode, we talk with a mother with lived experience of bipolar 1 disorder and how it affected her journey to and through motherhood.Michelle Yang is third generation ethnic Chinese born in South Korea, and she immigrated to the U.S. when she was 9. She is a mental health advocate and writer whose writings on the intersection of Asian American identity, body image, and mental health have been featured in NBC News, CNN, InStyle, Shondaland, Reader’s Digest, HuffPost, and more. She was a former editor at InStyle and Shape. Her memoir, PHOENIX GIRL: HOW A FAT ASIAN WITH BIPOLAR FOUND LOVE is forthcoming from Fifth Avenue Press in January 2025. In our episode today, Michelle tells us the story of how she was first diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder at the age of 20. We discussed how Michelle had always wanted to be a mom, but she had to grapple with her diagnosis and what that meant. She decided her bipolar disorder was not going to limit her in her ability to live her life the way she wanted to, especially once she was in a loving marriage, financially secure, and mentally well for a prolonged period of time.Michelle walks us through her process of therapy and assembling the right medical team before becoming pregnant, highlighting the challenges along the way--including some insensitive providers who told her she should just not have biological children. We talk about her medications and what it was like during pregnancy leading up to a traumatic birth. Then we talk about how she managed in postpartum when her symptoms came back, particularly with depression and guilt over not breastfeeding because she had to take care of her mental health.This is a deeply moving and thought-provoking conversation about how mental health can be both stigmatized and dramatized, but at the end of the day, people living with mental health disorders also need to know that they can still thrive with their conditions. We hope you will tune in to this beautiful discussion of triumph over stigmas.Find more of Michelle:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleyangwriter/Website: https://www.livingwellhappily.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelleyangwriterBOOK: Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found LoveNote: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Please RATE and REVIEW our show if you enjoy the episodes we bring to you! It helps others to find our show when you do. Thanks so much!Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For Maternal Mental Health Month, we knew we wanted to have a discussion on medications in the perinatal period. Because as much as AAPI folks can be reluctant to do therapy, they can also be just as wary about taking medications. But sometimes medications can play an important role in recovery, just like therapy can. So we wanted to talk with an expert on the psychiatric medications used during the perinatal period to dispel myths and empower our community to learn and ask about medications with their providers.Joining us on today's episode is Dr. Niya Dhand, MD--a double fellowship-trained, double board-certified reproductive psychiatrist. Dr. Dhand went to medical school at Ohio State University and went on to complete her psychiatry residency at Cleveland Clinic. Then she did an addiction Psychiatry fellowship at Yale, where she focused specifically on treatment of addiction in women.After a tragic second trimester pregnancy loss followed by a painful battle with infertility, Dr. Dhand went back and completed a Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry fellowship at Northwestern University, where she received in depth education and clinical experience in treating psychiatric conditions during pre-menses, infertility and loss, pregnancy, postpartum and perimenopause.In this episode, Dr. Dhand helps us clarify information on safety of medications like SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant/antianxiety medications in breastfeeding, during pregnancy, and in postpartum. We talk about the risk of untreated illness versus the risk that medications could bring. People often don't realize that untreated illness also carries a risk of harm to the fetus. For example, there is a small risk of miscarriage with untreated depression, but that risk is not present when you are taking an SSRI antidepressant.Dr. Dhand also talks about the two real main concerns of SSRIs during pregnancy--neonatal adaptation syndrome and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. She breaks down what these things mean and what the real risk actually is in numbers. (Spoiler: it's pretty small!) We talk about how and when someone might consider starting medications, whether or not SSRIs are "addicting," if Zoloft is really "the best choice" of antidepressants to start for pregnant and postpartum women. This episode goes in depth about the data, risks, and benefits of the most common psychiatric medications we think of during the perinatal period, but it by no means covers everything. Much of this information is shared transparently not to scare, but hopefully having some knowledge of what is truly important to look out for will empower our moms in their discussions with a provider to find a good fit if medications are in the picture.Resources mentioned:Mother to Baby: https://mothertobaby.org/LactMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501922/Find Dr. Niya Dhand at:Instagram: www.instagram.com/drniyadhandPSI Provider Directory ListingNSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Many of you have heard or read about Dr. Jasmine's postpartum depression story and know that insomnia was a huge piece of the story. While "postpartum insomnia" is not a true technical diagnosis, many moms have reached out to her about feeling so lost, confused, and unseen in their insomnia struggles after having a baby too -- especially after Jasmine's recent appearance on Rachael's (@heysleepybaby) podcast No One Told Us.So to kick off Maternal Mental Health Month, Peggy will be interviewing Jasmine to dive deeper into Jasmine's insomnia story that she hasn't shared before. We go over the scary 48-hour period where Jasmine couldn't fall asleep, the medications she tried, and the treatment modalities that helped Jasmine get better, including EMDR. We also discuss other options like CBT-I and how that can be helpful for those suffering with insomnia.We hope this episode helps those moms who have felt unseen in their insomnia struggles and perhaps highlight some potential treatment options. Maybe sharing this episode with a friend can also help explain what you're going through right now too. Each person's journey will be unique, but we get it--sleep is so important and can be so hard to come by. But there is hope and you can get well again!Resources:EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)EMDR Therapist DirectoryCBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Insomnia)CBT-I Provider DirectoryWhy We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, PhDNo One Told Us podcast episode that Jasmine was a guest forFor those who don't know about Jasmine:Dr. Jasmine is a mom of one and a clinical pharmacist with a doctorate in Pharmacy as well as a perinatal mental health certification (PMH-C). She is a survivor of severe postpartum depression, anxiety, and insomnia and a past Peer Mentor volunteer for Postpartum Support International (PSI). As a fierce maternal mental health advocate and a second-generation Taiwanese American, she also co-hosts a podcast called Healing the Tigress, which features conversations around Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) maternal mental health. She writes on her Pearls of Jasmine newsletter, blog, and Instagram about motherhood topics, mental health de-stigmatization, and gentle parenting. Some of her writing has been featured in places like Mother.ly and Psyched Mommy, and she was interviewed for a PPD story in Women's Health magazine last fall.If you enjoy our podcast and our mission, please take a moment to leave us a rSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We are thrilled to have Allison Livingston on our podcast for today's episode to talk about her lived experience with perinatal obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and postpartum depression (PPD). Allison is a Korean-American adoptee and a mom of two. She has a B.A. in International Business and a M.A. in Early Childhood Education. Allison was a teacher for 5 years and then things shifted after she had her daughter.In this episode, we talk about Allison's journey of diagnosing her postpartum OCD. Perinatal OCD is the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed of the perinatal mental health disorders. It can affect as many as 3-5% of mothers and perinatal women have up to 2x greater risk of OCD than the general population. Many women also have comorbid depression, and Allison's OCD was not initially recognized in addition to her PPD. We talk about how Allison finally got the right diagnosis, some of the obsessions and compulsions she had, and most importantly how she recovered. Allison openly talks about taking medications for OCD and the Exposure and Response Prevention therapy she did. We talk about the difference between intrusive thoughts versus psychosis. And even though it was not an easy journey, Allison provides optimism for recovery--even going on to have a second child, which she was much more prepared for.Through learning more about her own condition and recovering, Allison is now a fierce advocate for maternal mental health. She co-facilitates the Perinatal OCD Support Group for Parents at Postpartum Support International (PSI), and she is also PSI's International Coordinator Manager. With her lived experience, she was also asked to be on the International OCD Foundation's Public Awareness subcommittee of the Perinatal OCD Task Force.We hope this episode will help others (including providers!) understand perinatal OCD more and normalize medications and therapy for treating OCD. We also want this episode to provide hope for those out there suffering with perinatal OCD; there is treatment and you can be well again!Find more of Allison here:LinkedInBlog: https://atwoq.blogspot.com/Resources:PSI Perinatal OCD Support Group for ParentsPSI Perinatal OCD Support Groups for MomsU.S. Dept of Human & Health Services Talking PPD Campaign--Allison's VideoNOCD: https://www.treatmyocd.com/International OCD Foundation: https://iocdf.org/If you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

TW: Topics of miscarriage and suicide are briefly discussed in this episode. You may recognize our next guest from a New York Times story featuring real-life women's stories on postpartum depression last summer. In this episode, we talk with Shivani Hiralal about her experiences with miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, a traumatic birth, and then postpartum depression.Amidst the roller coaster of emotions on her road to becoming a mother, Shivani describes moving to a new state while pregnant during the pandemic and then having to perform CPR on her husband unexpectedly while she was 35 weeks along and enduring an ICU stay for him. Through listening to her story, it highlights that there are so many things that can contribute to perinatal anxiety and mood disorders, starting from the conceiving journey. Shivani describes how being a woman of color felt like another disadvantage in getting the help she desperately sought out in the healthcare system.Additionally, you may remember in Episode 2 of Healing the Tigress, we talked with Nima Bhakta's sister, Priya Bhakta, about Nima's postpartum depression story leading to a devastating suicide ending. Shivani’s husband was a close childhood friend of Nima’s. We hear about when Shivani first met Nima and then how Nima’s story further fueled Shivani’s desire to be a fierce advocate for perinatal mental health by continuing to share her story.Shivani shares some exciting work happening at PSI soon and about the power of support groups. It can be hard as AAPI folks to consider support groups and openly share our hard moments in motherhood, but Shivani also helps destigmatize support groups and highlight how they can help.Shivani Hiralal is a South Asian mother with a background as a trained yoga and mindfulness guide. She has worked with pregnant and postpartum patients on their journeys to parenthood. Her commitment and passion for advocating for perinatal mental health led her to join Postpartum Support International (PSI) as their Marketing Strategist. Additionally, she facilitates the South Asian Support Group at PSI and is currently on track to receive her PMH-C. She hopes to continue to live her life's mission of de-stigmatizing mental health, specifically, perinatal mental health in South Asian communities and around the world.Find more of Shivani at:Instagram: www.instagram.com/shiralal25NYT Article feature: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/well/mind/postpartum-depression-mental-health.htmlPSI Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi Moms Support Group (FREE!)And if you or someone you know is having thoughts of self-harm, please call or text:1. National Crisis and Suicide Hotline: 9882. National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-852-6262 (1-833-TLC-MAMA)3. Postpartum Support International Hotline: 1-800-944-4773Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakerSend us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Recently we had an episode on the decision to have just one child, but there is another side to “one and done” families who may not be this way by choice. We offer a Trigger Warning before you listen that this episode does talk about miscarriage.For this episode, we sit down with Val from @thewabisabimama to talk about her motherhood story. Val is a fourth-generation Japanese American mother, who shares the beauty of imperfections and impermanence in motherhood—the meaning behind the Japanese phrase “wabi sabi.” She also shares on her Instagram account the ways she is trying to keep her family’s cultural heritage alive and how she is creating her own family traditions with her son.In this episode, we talk with Val about how she may be one and done, but not exactly by choice. During the first half of the episode, we hear about Val’s experience with her son’s colic and her experience with postpartum depression. In the second half of the episode, we dive into the feelings of grief over a miscarriage Val had a couple years ago and is still perhaps not done grieving.The topic over this miscarriage is more complex in Val’s situation because she had actually mentally prepared to be done having kids, but then she got pregnant again and had a glimmer of hope for a brief window. After the miscarriage, Val ran more tests and then learned that secondary fertility was in the picture. Val shared with us that even though she is grateful for her son, it’s hard to be in the “one and done” group especially when she does wish to have another child. But she is trying to find and come to the peace of having a single child family. We talk about the grief and gratitude around this and about normalizing the invisible grief over miscarriages in general. We hope this conversation might be helpful for anyone who is still grieving a miscarriage or hoping to expand their family know that they are not alone in these feelings.Find more of Val at:Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewabisabimamaOther resources:Jasmine's Substack Newsletter on being "One and Won"If you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI parents who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram and TikTok. Thank you for tuning in!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

The episode today is rich with a wide range of topics from public policy, to race and racism, to PPD/PPA/PPOCD. A heartwarming message we also get to highlight is how it’s never too late to change your career and chase your dreams. Divya Kumar, LICSW, ScM, PMH-C is a South Asian-American psychotherapist with a public health background who specializes in perinatal mental health, trauma, and the life transitions related to pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. She is a mom of two teenagers and especially passionate about holding space for folks of color and folks who identify as first- and second-generation immigrants as they navigate the transition to parenthood and explore how race, racial identity, and culture intersect with parenting. Before becoming a therapist, Divya's work focused on connecting clinical services with public health by addressing unmet needs in direct perinatal mental healthcare and the structure and delivery of perinatal support services. Currently, she participates in initiatives to improve perinatal mental health services and systems of care at both the state and national levels. Divya is a Co-Founder of the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color (the Alliance), Board Member of Postpartum Support International (PSI) of Massachusetts, and a Commissioner on the Ellen Story Commission for Postpartum Depression.In this conversation, we talk about how Divya was inspired to co-found the Alliance with Jabina Coleman and Desiree Israel after a fateful PSI conference, as a way to invite more providers and mothers of color to the resources that PSI had to offer. Divya also shares about her own personal postpartum journey that was rife with PMADs (PPD, PPA, PPOCD) she never got diagnosed with and finally understood years later.Divya also returned to school after realizing the work she was doing with postpartum women after becoming a mother herself was inspiring a calling to become a therapist who could work particularly with women of color. As someone who is raising multiracial, multicultural children, Divya is also highly aware of the privilege and also the racism that her kids will have to grapple with. She talks about parenting in a new generation, often “bushwhacking” or carving out our own paths because we were never shown how to value feelings and mental health as AAPI children. This is one of the most fiery and passionate conversations we’ve had, and we hope you will enjoy it too!Find more of Divya on Instagram: www.instagram.com/bothbrownandtherapist Resources mentioned: AsAm news article: Better Luck YesterdayIf you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI parents who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram Thank you for tuning in!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

TW: Miscarriages are briefly discussed in this episode.If you asked Shannon Eng when she was younger how many kids she wanted, she might have told you ten! She thought she wanted a lot of children, despite being an only child herself. And then she became a mother right before the world shut down for a global pandemic. The idea of having more children soon changed after Shannon went through postpartum during a time where she did not have a village for support and her mental health was often not well. Now she has decided that for her mental health's sake, one child is exactly what she wants and needs.Some of you may also know Shannon as a popular fitness nutrition specialist and Pilates instructor on social media as @caligirlgetsfit. She uses her platform now not only to share about health and wellness, but to highlight her motherhood journey and how she is an only child who is choosing to raise an only child. Shannon also recently started a newer account on Instagram called @onlynotlonelykids to focus more on single children topics.In this episode, we discuss how Shannon had 2 miscarriages before having her son, and that began to set the stage for the mental health toll motherhood would have on her. We talk about how some people don't view mental health as a "real" reason not to have more children. We talk about the mislabeled stereotypes people give to only children and some of the reasons and history behind how these unfounded assumptions came to be. Shannon is a third and fourth generation Chinese American, but despite her family being in the U.S. for awhile, she feels they still hold onto a lot of Asian values--one of which is the cultural expectation to have many children so someone will care for the elderly. We talk about how people often think only children will be "lonely," and Shannon also gives a great analogy to the argument for "double or nothing" when it comes to having children.We hope this conversation will help normalize the choice to be one and done as well as for society to stop mislabeling only children with stereotypes that have been disproven before they really get to know them. We realize that having a choice is a privilege, but also want to acknowledge that there is no perfect family size. The best one is the one that works for your family--physically and mentally.Find more of Shannon at:Instagram:1. www.instagram.com/caligirlgetsfit2. www.instagram.com/onlynotlonelykidsIf you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI parents who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram.Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

You may know our latest guest as the popular "Untigering" on Instagram or from her book by the same name. Iris Chen is a recovering tiger mother, parent coach, and founder of the Untigering movement. After seeing the negative effects of authoritarian parenting and unhealthy cultural expectations in her own life, Iris is now on a mission to promote mental health, peaceful parenting, and self-directed learning, especially among Asian communities.Because of our names and our ideas around the concept of the "tiger mom," we knew we had to get Iris on the podcast to have a conversation! In this episode, we talk with Iris about what she observed being an "American Born Chinese (ABC) raising Chinese Born Americans (CBA)" in China, after she lived there for 16 years. Iris has since returned to the U.S. and is continuing to raise her teenagers in ways that honor peaceful parenting and "unschooling," which we talk about as well. We discuss how Iris got to experience a "third culture" living abroad and then in turn defining how she wanted her motherhood and parenting ideals to look. Iris goes over the pivotal moment when she realized she had to change her authoritarian ways of parenting because she realized there was actually neurobiological development at play in her children that she had to take into consideration.We also talk about how mental health and parenting can be closely tied in motherhood, and how "untigering" is not just about how we parent our children now but also how we heal from the way we were parented. Additionally, Iris talks about how we're not abandoning all ideals and traditions of our culture. Rather, we are blending our parts and seeing ourselves as bi-cultural and creating our own culture.Please join us in this rich conversation about the intersection of motherhood, parenting, Asian identity, and mental health with the inspiring Iris Chen.Find more of Iris at:Website: https://untigering.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/untigering/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/untigering Book: "Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent" If you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI mothers who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram. Thank you for tuning in!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

TW: We do discuss suicidal thoughts and miscarriage in this episode.Even though Healing the Tigress is about maternal mental health, we cannot have these conversations with just moms. Men, dads, partners all play a role in the healing process as well, and they themselves also deserve the same support and care for their own mental health as they step into parenthood. Their mental health ties in closely with maternal mental health too. So we really wanted to feature a male voice on our podcast, and who better to talk with than J.S. Park —a Korean American hospital chaplain from Florida.J.S. Park has a MDiv and a BA in Psychology. He is a published author (The Voices We Carry) with another book on the way in a few months, a viral blogger/influencer, and a father to a 3-year-old daughter with a second child on the way next month! For eight years, he has been an interfaith chaplain at a 1000+ bed hospital that is designated a Level 1 Trauma Center. His role includes grief counseling, attending every death, every trauma and Code Blue, staff care, and supporting end-of-life care. He also served for three years as a chaplain at one of the largest nonprofit charities for the homeless on the east coast.Together we sit down and talk about how J.S. did not think he wanted children at first, for fear of passing down his generational traumas. Eventually he did decide to have children, and unfortunately, his wife experienced severe postpartum depression. We talk about their journey to getting her help at the beginning and height of the pandemic. J.S. also admits that he himself also ended up having depression and anxiety after burning out from being the sole caregiver of his wife and his daughter, who they were concerned had other health problems.We talk openly about taking antidepressants and going to therapy and couples’ therapy. We also discuss his views on “grief anxiety,” as a person who constantly sees death at work. There are many instances of grieving in motherhood/parenthood, and J.S. talks with us about how this grief ties in with social and cultural forces too.This conversation is rich with thought-provoking ideas that challenge our stigmas against Asian males, dads, mental health, generational trauma, grief, and more. Please take a listen to this wonderful discussion with J.S. Park, dubbed the “grief catcher” or “therapriest,” and we hope you’ll enjoy listening to our first (but not last!) male guest!Find more of J.S. Park at:Instagram: @jspark3000Website: https://jsparkblog.com/Book: The Voices We Carry Book: As Long As You NeedIf you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI mothers who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram. Thank you for tuning in!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Please help us welcome our first international guest! Tisha Kachhapati, MBPsS, MBACP, is a Nepalese American psychodynamic counselor now living abroad and based in the United Kingdom for the past decade. She is what we would consider an ex-pat, but as we discuss, she mentions that because she is a person of color, people often call her an “immigrant” instead.In this episode, Tisha describes her experience giving birth in the UK and the traumatic birth that followed, which left her getting an emergency C-section and barely conscious enough to realize a Code Blue had been called. Tisha tells us how it felt like the mother was forgotten after the baby was delivered and how her postpartum depression and anxiety weren’t as apparent until 8 months later because she seemed so high functioning. Even when she asked her general practitioner for antidepressants, she was dismissed and told she just needed to “go on a holiday.” Eventually, Tisha took the antidepressants and got better. But when her son was two, Tisha was trying to ask her GP if they had more help for maternal mental health to offer her. She was turned away and told there was nothing they could offer her. Tisha was shocked. But she turned that disappointment into her personal fuel to change her career completely and pursue a degree in psychodynamic counseling. Please tune in to this inspiration story from a mum across the pond. We think you’ll find it relatable, enlightening, and funny, as Tisha’s humor and wonderful British accent really shine through. And the bigger message is that perinatal mood and anxiety disorders do not discriminate; many of thesame themes and societal stigmas and shortcomings are the same in the UK as they are in the US. Find more of Tisha at:Instagram: @tmktherapyWebsite: www.tmktherapy.comIf you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI mothers who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram. Thank you for tuning in!Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

We took a short break while Jasmine was studying for her PMH-C test, but now that she has taken it and passed (yay!), we wanted to throw in one last bonus episode for 2023. Pull up a chair and grab a mug of hot cocoa (or your drink of choice) to listen in on an open, completely unedited conversation between Peggy and Jasmine, reflecting on how this experience of starting Healing the Tigress has been. Find out what surprised us most after starting this podcast, what our favorite moments of the past 3 months have been, and even some confessions and realizations from our high school days! We inadvertently (briefly) recap all of the episodes from this year--what did they mean to us and what were the emotions behind some of them. Jasmine also shares a little bit about just what "PMH-C" really is and how it can be helpful for those seeking help with perinatal mental health. We end by teasing a little bit about the kinds of guests we have coming up in the next year! And then if you haven't seen our fun holiday giveaway yet, there's still a few more days to enter on our IG page! Check it out over at www.instagram.com/healingthetigress.We'll be back from the holidays around mid January, so look out for us then! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us on this journey. We can't wait to share our upcoming guests with everyone. Happy Holidays! See you in 2024!Send us your thoughts!Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)