But What Will People Say? Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures

Psychotherapist Kohli ventures beyond traditional Western therapeutic approaches in her innovative debut guide to mental health. Born to Indian immigrant parents, Kohli grew up grappling with her identity, finding only “white and therefore culturally individualistic” perspectives in self-help books. She became a therapist and in 2019 founded the online community Brown Girl Therapy to “raise awareness of ways in which we can decolonize therapy and mental health care.” Drawing on personal anecdotes, client stories, and online polls, Kohli digs into such issues as the “internalization of societal, cultural, or familial standards” that shape immigrant kids’ “dominant narratives” (“It can feel like we are characters written into our parents’ stories”) and the tension between retaining one’s heritage and assimilating for the sake of safety or ease. Kohli’s own narrative—growing up feeling trapped between two cultures; dealing with academic pressure; telling her parents she was dating a white American who became her husband—forms the backbone of the book, providing a solid foundation for thoughtful reflection questions, exercises, and tips on such topics as “cultural imposter syndrome,” in which one lacks a sense of grounding in both host and heritage cultures. Those seeking self-help beyond “eurocentric and colonial” models of care will be eager to dive in. (May)