THE ASIAN AMERICAN BOOK CLUB PRESENTS AN AAPI WELLNESS WORKSHOP
in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month
Led by DR. JENNY WANG, author of PERMISSION TO COME HOME, and SAHAJ KAUR KOHLI, author of BUT WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY?
Monday, May 13, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Hana House, 345 Adams Street @ Willoughby Plaza, Downtown Brooklyn
Dr. Jenny (@asiansformentalhealth) and Sahaj Kaur Kohli (@browngirltherapy), whose practices are among the leading sources of mental health information and community for AAPIs, will lead an interactive workshop that will introduce you, the audience, to concepts and tools that will empower you to take better care of your mental health. Come and meet two of the most influential AAPI mental health practitioners in the country and take a step forward in your mental health journey!
In Permission to Come Home, the first book by a mental health professional specifically written for the Asian American community, Dr. Jenny Wang, whose @asiansformentalhealth account on Instagram led the launch of a wellness movement within the AAPI community, takes us on an empowering journey toward reclaiming our mental health. Weaving her personal narrative as a Taiwanese American together with her insights as a clinician and evidence-based tools, Dr. Jenny explores a range of life areas that call for attention, offering readers the permission to question, feel, rage, say no, take up space, choose, play, fail, and grieve. Above all, she offers permission to return closer to home, a place of acceptance, belonging, healing, and freedom. For Asian Americans and Diaspora, this book is a necessary road map for the journey to wholeness.
Writer and therapist Sahaj Kaur Kohli, the force behind the influential Instagram account @browngirltherapy, grew up knowing exactly what it meant to straddle multiple cultures at once. Like many children of immigrants, she often found herself plagued by questions: Can I establish my own values and embrace where I come from? Is prioritizing my mental health really rejecting my culture? How do I set boundaries and care for myself when family and community mean everything? Even after becoming a therapist herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world, leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what about us? But What Will People Say? elegantly weaves together personal narrative, anecdotal analysis, and comprehensive research. Sahaj offers advice and tools for everything from navigating generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. Democratizing and decolonizing the way we think about mental health and self-help, Sahaj’s incredible work is nothing short of a revolution.
