“Being able to find community and find parts of yourself reflected in someone else is such an important part of healing”

It’s been five years since Atlanta-based therapist Kaila Tang cofounded the Asian Mental Health Collective (AMHC), and the small national nonprofit continues to find there’s a need for its work.

Especially right now, Kaila says, anxiety is high among her patients.

“It’s been very difficult for people who are on visas, students, immigrants, to feel safe,” she told 285 South. “I have heard my patients talk about wanting to [leave] the United States.”

AMHC has grown its online community over the last several years as well as its team: its board and two staff are all over the country and come from varying backgrounds including Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and Filipino. The nonprofit serves people nationwide and provides everything from community support groups to Asian therapist directories to funding for free therapy. 

Many of her patients have immigrant backgrounds, carrying within them the stories of their own parents leaving their homes because of war or repression, or to find economic opportunity elsewhere. 

Knowing your family’s story, Kaila said, is critical to healing from trauma, especially for children of immigrants. Her grandparents parents left China for Hong Kong in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and her parents are immigrants from Hong Kong. “I’m curious about what that experience was like and how it impacted my family members, because it’s traumatic, and it’s not something to be taken lightly. Not knowing your roots can really add to a sense of not belonging, a sense of confusion and kind of isolation, especially growing up in a community where there aren’t that many people who look like you,” said Kaila. “I want to know what ways my family might have suffered, the ways in which they have been traumatized.” That trauma, she explained, can be carried on to the next generation.

Kaila cofounded AMHC in part because she knew so many others grappled with similar issues. The popular Facebook group Subtle Asian Mental Health (which now has over 60,000 members worldwide) was one such space where these issues were discussed, and the cofounders of AMHC took inspiration from that.

“Growing up in our own families, mental health has such a large stigma, where emotions and the way that we feel, it’s not something that was openly discussed,” said Kaila. So she and the other cofounders created a space where people could do that comfortably. “It can be kind of intimidating, but it’s also a way for people to share their stories and find commonality and connection.”

Since its founding, the collective’s goals have also evolved from not just destigmatizing mental health, but also “cultivating a shared culture of care within the Asian diaspora.” Rather than an individualist approach to mental health, AMHC draws on Asian traditions of collectivism: “We do not need, or want, to do away with centuries of beloved culture and tradition for the sake of mental health,” reads its mission statement. The aim, instead, is to integrate worldviews, “expressing collectivist ideals while respecting the agency of the individual.”

AMHC’s signature program is its Lotus Therapy Fund. Essentially, said Kaila, those interested can apply to receive subsidized therapy—eight sessions in total—and are matched with therapists in their state. The fund is open to people anywhere, as long as they’re over 18 and self-identify as Asian. Every quarter, AMHC accepts 25 to 30 people to access the free therapy. (Applications are currently closed, but you can stay updated here on when they’ll open up again.) 

Atlanta residents are among those who have accessed the subsidized therapy, said Kaila, and she imagines culturally sensitive and holistic therapy will remain in need in the coming months.

Kaila has also worked to make it easier for Georgia residents to find Asian therapists. She cofounded Asian Mental Health Professionals of Georgia, an online directory searchable by ethnicity, speciality, and location; it also serves as a platform for therapists with Asian backgrounds to connect with each other. 

“I have a number of patients who are recent graduates who can’t find a job, and especially for those in the Atlanta area, when it comes to the CDC, and people who are working in public health, people who have been laid off or who just don’t know what to do,” she said. There’s “a lot of disconnection, a lot of isolation, anxiety . . . and I definitely believe that being able to find community and find parts of yourself reflected in someone else is such an important part of healing.”